Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics Research

Acupuncture & Electrotherapeutics Research (A&ETR) is committed to advancing the scientific understanding and translational application of acupuncture, bioelectrical phenomena, and electromedicine within the broader framework of integrative medicine. Its mission is to link fundamental discoveries to clinical practice, fostering sustainable health outcomes and opening new perspectives on human well-being and longevity.

The journal serves as a dynamic and rigorous forum for exploring how electricity and energy-based mechanisms underpin life processes and therapeutic interventions. From Luigi Galvani’s discovery of “animal electricity” to Albert Szent-Györgyi’s recognition that life is sustained by currents of electrons, A&ETR affirms that electricity is not a metaphor but a biological fact. Every nerve impulse, every muscle contraction, and every heartbeat is orchestrated by the movement of ions and electrons. This principle applies equally to the human host and to the microbial partners that inhabit the body: in the intestinal lumen, a measurable redox potential and microbial bioelectrical activity shape metabolism, immunity, and systemic homeostasis. At every scale, these processes converge in what can be termed the electrome, the comprehensive electrical state of living systems, intrinsically linked to the redoxome of electron transfer reactions. Together, these dimensions provide the conceptual basis for electromics, the science that quantifies electron fluxes and bioelectrical states as indicators of health and disease. To investigate these processes, to understand how they can be modulated for health, and to translate them into therapeutic strategies remains the journal’s central vocation.

This focus naturally embraces both traditional and modern electrotherapeutic approaches. Acupuncture, with its centuries-old heritage, represents an ancient exploration of the body’s electrical and energetic organization. Today, neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and neuromodulation confirm that inserting a needle or applying an electric stimulus can alter brain networks, regulate autonomic balance, and relieve pain. In parallel, electroceuticals, deep brain stimulation, and regenerative bioelectric therapies exemplify how controlled manipulation of currents can restore lost function. A&ETR provides a rigorous platform where such diverse modalities can be critically examined and scientifically validated.

At the same time, the scope of the journal extends to the broader study of bioelectromagnetics and photobiology. Biological systems are not only electrical but also electromagnetic: static and dynamic fields shape cellular orientation, growth, and repair, while light—quanta of electromagnetic energy—regulates metabolism, signaling, and adaptation. Photobiomodulation, once peripheral, is now clinically tested worldwide, highlighting the importance of a journal capable of bridging physics and physiology, photons and cells, devices and therapies.

Beyond these central domains, A&ETR recognizes that electricity does not act in isolation. It is inseparably linked to the redox system, the acid–base balance of the microenvironment, oxygen availability, and the regulation of inflammatory pathways. To these determinants we must add the contribution of the microbiota, whose bioelectric and redox dialogue with host cells profoundly influences intestinal and systemic physiology. This recognition aligns the journal with the One Health perspective, where human well-being is inseparable from the health of microbial ecosystems, animals, and the environment.

Framing these processes within the electrome and the redoxome provides a unifying paradigm, capable of linking molecular metabolism to ecological sustainability. Electromics, as the investigative tool, allows us to quantify and translate this complexity into clinical practice and public health. Hypoxia, acidosis, and oxidative distress are, at their root, electrical phenomena, arising from electron transfer reactions and charge imbalances. They shape the microenvironment in which cells communicate, adapt, or degenerate. For this reason, the journal also welcomes contributions from redox biology, gas biology, and microenvironmental studies, fields that reveal profound unity when seen through the lens of bioelectricity.

Thus, the scope of A&ETR is intentionally broad, reflecting the fact that health cannot be confined to a single discipline. The journal publishes original research, reviews, case studies, and theoretical perspectives spanning electroacupuncture, electrotherapeutics, neuromodulation, bioelectronic medicine, photobiology, redox and gas biology, microbiome research, and integrative approaches to cellular microenvironments. Interdisciplinary contributions are particularly encouraged, as they embody the integrative vision at the heart of the journal.

Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutic Research also values perspectives that situate scientific inquiry within historical, philosophical, and cultural contexts. The very word “atom”, conceived by Greek philosophers as the indivisible unit of matter, reminds us that medicine has always been a dialogue between metaphors and measurements. In modern Greek, “átoma” also means “person,” indivisible in body, mind, and spirit. It is this integrated vision—recognizing the individual as a whole—that A&ETR seeks to honor. By combining rigorous biophysics with cultural insight, the journal aspires to shape a medicine that is not only effective but also sustainable, humane, and oriented toward well-being, successful longevity, and, ultimately, happiness.

In summary, A&ETR positions itself as both a guardian of tradition and a catalyst for innovation. Its primary mission is to advance the science of acupuncture and electrotherapeutics while expanding into interconnected domains of bioelectricity, bioelectromagnetics, photobiology, redox biology, and microbiota research. Equally, the study of the electrome and the redoxome will be central to this mission, as they represent the organizing principles of life’s currents and fields. In embracing this vision, the journal explicitly aligns with the One Health paradigm, recognizing that bioelectric and redox dynamics extend across humans, microbes, animals, and the environment. By publishing contributions that span molecules to systems, philosophy to clinical practice, the journal seeks to illuminate the unity of biochemical and biophysical processes and to foster a medicine of the future—rigorous, integrative, and deeply human, in harmony with the One Health paradigm.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

– Dr. Eugenio Luigi Iorio, Editor