Proteomic effects of wet cupping (Al-hijamah)

Wet cupping (Al-hijamah) is a therapeutic technique practiced worldwide as a part of the Unani system of medicine. It involves bloodletting from acupoints on a patient’s skin to produce a therapeutic outcome. A thorough review of research articles on wet cupping with relevance to proteomics field that are indexed by Google Scholar, PubMed, and/or Science Direct databases was performed. Eight original research articles were summarized in this paper. Overall, wet cupping did not have a significant effect on C-reactive protein, Hsp-27, sister chromatid exchanges, and cell replication index. In contrast, wet cupping was found to produce higher oxygen saturation, eliminate lactate from subcutaneous tissues, remove blood containing higher levels of malondialdehyde and nitric oxide, and produce higher activity of myeloperoxidase. The proteomic effects of wet cupping therapy have not been adequately investigated. Thus, future studies on wet cupping that use systemic and sound protocols to avoid bias should be conducted.