title: [Our considerations about research on regularities of acupoint combination based on bipartite network community structure partition].
abstract: Acupoint compatibility is not only a foundation for formulating acupoint recipes in clinical practice, but also a core of meridian and acupoint theory. Many studies have revealed that the application of multiple-acupoints combination in the treatment of different clinical conditions or illnesses may lead to three outcomes, i.e., synergistic effect, antagonistic effect and no effect. Therefore, the application of multiple acupoints combination is definitely not a simple result of 1 + 1 = 2, or 2 - 1 = 1 in the management of many clinical disorders, and rather, the reasonable combination of multiple acupoints is a non-liner, dynamic and complicated issue. It has been well documented that the complex biological network consists of modules/communities, a set of nodes that are more densely inter-connected among themselves than with the rest of the network, which can be detected by community detection according to their modularity. After analyzing the current status and development trends of acupoint comparability researches in both China and other countries of the world, the authors of the present paper put forward some ideas and methods for the research of correlation, composing characteristics and dynamically evolutionary regularities of acupoint combination from the macroscopic and local aspects, dynamic and static angles on the basis of the theory of community structure theory of complex networks.
authors.forename: Yu-Lan
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Tian-Xiao
authors.initials: TX
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Jiao-Ling
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Hong-Ping
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.forename: Fan-Rong
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D015669:Acupuncture Points; D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D006801:Humans; D016740:Meridians