Vagus nerve stimulation reduced inflammation and restored cognitive function after injury
For adults over age 65, surgical complications can dampen not only their physical health but also their mental sharpness, with more than half of high-risk cases declining into delirium.
In research published this week in the journal Brain Stimulation, Duke University scientists show in a mouse model that a current treatment for seizures can also reverse brain inflammation, such as inflammation after surgery, and the subsequent confusion or cognitive decline that results.
The therapy involves minimally invasive stimulation of the vagus nerve using small electrical pulses comparable to a cell phone’s vibrations.
The scientists used a Doppler ultrasound to guide the placement of a needle that delivers the electrical pulse, avoiding nearby delicate structures such as the carotid artery. Researchers hope to refine the technique into a completely non-invasive approach to preventing cognitive decline when seniors and other at-risk patients have surgery.
“Delirium is now recognized as the most common complication in older adults after surgery,” said Niccolò Terrando, Ph.D., associate professor of anesthesiology at Duke and the study’s senior author. “For most patients, it lasts a few days and resolves on its own. For some, it can lead to severe complications and even contribute to long lasting cognitive deficits, like dementia.”
Terrando noted that these cognitive complications have a huge impact on quality of life and can be expensive, with health care costs for delirium reaching $164 billion a year according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
“So far, there is no therapy for this kind of cognitive complication after surgery,” Terrando said. Anti-inflammatory drugs have many side effects and work broadly, he said, and they don’t adequately target the inflammation in the brain that scientists believe triggers cognitive complications.
The vagus nerve helps the brain communicate with the heart, lungs, gut and other parts of the body. Vagus nerve stimulators have been surgically implanted in epilepsy patients for more than 20 years to reduce seizures.
In recent years, U.S. doctors have also prescribed at-home, non-invasive stimulators for severe headaches. However, there is not substantial evidence that the devices are stimulating the vagus nerve and not other structures near it, said Warren M. Grill, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering at Duke.
For the experimental model, mice with inflammation received one nerve-stimulating treatment lasting several minutes. The researchers monitored for signs of vagus nerve activation, such as a slower heart rate and twitching of muscles around the larynx, and found improved cognitive outcomes and reduced brain inflammation after this treatment.
“This minimally invasive approach is already exceedingly benign, but in the long term it would be desirable to have an entirely non-invasive approach and we are beginning that work,” Grill said.
Learn more: Nerve Stimulation in Mice Suggests New Way to Reduce Delirium After Surgery
The Latest on: Vagus nerve stimulation
[google_news title=”” keyword=”vagus nerve stimulation” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Vagus nerve stimulation
- Vagus Nerve Stimulatoron November 20, 2023 at 11:02 pm
What is a vagus nerve stimulator? A vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) is a device that can help prevent seizures. It has 2 parts, a pulse generator and leads. The pulse generator sits in your chest under ...
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Treatment-resistant Mood Disorders: A Long-term Naturalistic Studyon November 19, 2023 at 4:00 pm
Vagus nerve stimulation showed adjunctive antidepressant effect in chronic treatment resistant depression, even though available studies rarely exceed 2-year follow up. We report a naturalistic 5 ...
- The Healing Code: Deciphering Vagus Nerve's Impact On Pediatric Gut Healthon November 17, 2023 at 10:21 am
This story is part of a series on the current progression in Regenerative Medicine. This piece discusses advances in vagus nerve stimulation. In 1999, I defined regenerative medicine as the collection ...
- Vagus nerve stimulation may help treat drug addictionon November 16, 2023 at 1:37 pm
Rats that received vagus nerve stimulation were less likely to seek out drugs than those that didn’t, indicating that the therapy could help treat substance use disorders ...
- Continuous Low-Level Vagus Nerve Stimulation Reduces Stellate Ganglion Nerve Activity and Paroxysmal Atrial Tachyarrhythmias in Ambulatory Canineson November 13, 2023 at 4:00 pm
After 1 week of baseline recording, LL-VNS was then commenced while the dog was ambulatory. We first defined the stimulation threshold for each dog by stimulating the left cervical vagus nerve at 13 ...
- Vagus Nerve Stimulator Industry’s Remarkable 10.6% CAGR Forecast 2018 to 2026 | FMI Insightson November 5, 2023 at 4:00 pm
In a groundbreaking revelation, a recent intelligence study by Future Market Insights has unveiled a remarkable surge in the global Vagus Nerve Stimulator Industry. Implantable vagus nerve stimulators ...
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation Is Trending, But Does It Live Up to the Hype?on October 28, 2023 at 5:00 pm
What about an autoimmune disorder? A slew of social media wellness influencers are touting a simple solution: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). And this biohacking method to “reset” the brain ...
- Vagus nerve stimulation reduces inflammation in children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Feinstein Institutes study findson October 18, 2023 at 2:59 am
Using electricity and vagus nerve stimulation devices, like implants or in this clinical trial’s case a non-invasive device placed in the ear, clinicians can retune the vagus nerve to function ...
- Vagus nerve stimulation for treating developmental and epileptic encephalopathy in young childrenon October 11, 2023 at 1:46 pm
Objective: To investigate the clinical variables that might predict the outcome of developmental and epileptic encephalopathy (DEE) after vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy and identify the risk ...
via Bing News