Can vagus nerve stimulation improve autoimmune disease symptoms?

Current treatments for autoimmune diseases mostly consist of drugs that suppress the immune system and can lead to undesirable side effects. However, a new study shows that vagus nerve stimulation—which consists of tiny pulses of electricity that stimulate the vagus nerve—may offer an innovative way to replace drug treatments.

The vagus nerve carries signals between the brain, heart, and digestive system, and has been shown to be linked to the immune system. This discovery was made over 20 years ago when researchers administered an experimental drug to rat models designed to prevent brain inflammation. Interestingly, in addition to reducing brain inflammation, the drug also suppressed inflammation in the body because of a signal sent from the brain to the body through the vagus nerve. The signal effectively prompted certain immune cells to stop producing inflammatory proteins, also known as cytokines.

Vagus nerve stimulators are nothing new. In fact, they are already approved for certain patients with depression and epilepsy. Based on the study from 20 years ago, researchers have now developed an implantable device that stimulates the vagus nerve to activate the anti-inflammatory reflex. In the 2024 study, researchers implanted these stimulators in 242 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and found that the device reduced not only symptoms and progression of the disease but also slowed down the damage to joints after 12 weeks of stimulation. They also found a reduced number of inflammatory proteins in the patients. This device is currently under review by the FDA, and will most likely have a decision by the end of 2025. Although it's still unclear if this stimulator will be as effective as drug treatments, this is still an impressive innovation in autoimmune disease research.

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