Profiling the rat cortical single-cell transcriptome reveals the potential mechanism of specific mode electroacupuncture stimulation opening the blood-brain barrier
The existence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) dramatically limits the drug treatment of central nervous system diseases such as stroke, neurodegenerative diseases, and brain tumors. Due to the complexity of the structure and function of the blood-brain barrier, it has been challenging to develop central nervous system drug delivery strategies and reveal critical biological mechanisms. Our previous studies have confirmed that specific mode electroacupuncture stimulation (EA) can effectively open the BBB in rats. Here, we utilized single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to map the cell population of rat cerebral cortex comprehensively. We identified 23 cell subsets and 8 types of cells in the brain obtained by cell annotation, and explored the potential mechanism of EA to open the blood-brain barrier by bioinformatics analysis of specific cell subsets and cell types, as well as cell communications. In summary, scRNA-seq uncovers the transcriptional changes of the cerebral cortex under EA at the single cell level; our results provide rich insights into the molecular and cellular architecture changes of the brain after EA intervention and provide a new reference for BBB material transport and its drug delivery research in health and disease, providing new potential strategies into the mechanism of BBB opening and provide essential information for designing rational treatment regimens and optimizing drug delivery. Overall design: Rats were randomly divided into electroacupuncture group and control group ( n = 5 ). Rats in the EA group received electroacupuncture intervention, and rats in the CON group received only the same restraint treatment. The frontal lobe tissues of bilateral cerebral cortex of rats were taken for single cell sequencing.