NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
According to traditional Chinese medical theory, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi, the vital energy, flows. However, I have proposed a less mysterious neurophysiological mechanism to explain the beneficial effects of this 2,000-year-old practice (Medical Hypotheses, 73:470-72, 2009). In particular, my hypothesis is based on the surprising finding that a hitherto unknown extracellular signalling system exists between cells, including nerve cells.
Adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) is well established as an intracellular energy source that powers biochemical processes. In 1972 I proposed that ATP has another biochemical role: it acts as an extracellular signalling molecule between cells. The messages carried by ATP are received on the surface of cells by specific receptors, which I termed purinoceptors, because ATP belongs to a group of chemicals ...
