Inflammatory response is often recognized as the central pathological mechanism for the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD).Therefore，anti-inflammation is taken as a fundamental strategy for COPD clinical treatment.The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway(CAP) is an important neural-immunomodulatory pathway.CAP can regulate the downstream signaling pathways，including nuclear factor κB(NF-κB)，Janus kinase 2/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3(JAK2/STAT3)，and phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase/protein kinase B(PI3K/AKT)，to attenuate inflammation by combining the acetylcholine released during the anti-inflammatory process with the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors(α7nAChR) on immune cells.CAP can fight the systemic inflammatory response and modulate the inflammatory response in the lungs，especially playing an important role in the COPD anti-inflammatory treatment.Acupuncture and moxibustion，as one of the external treatments of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)，have been widely used to prevent and treat COPD with solid efficacy to modulate CAP for an anti-inflammatory effect.