A review of vagus nerve stimulation as a therapeutic intervention.
Author: Johnson RL1, Wilson CG1,2
Affiliation:
1Lawrence D Longo MD Center for Perinatal Biology, Department of Basic Sciences, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, USA.
2Department of Pediatrics, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA, USA.
Conference/Journal: J Inflamm Res.
Date published: 2018 May 16
Other:
Volume ID: 11 , Pages: 203-213 , Special Notes: doi: 10.2147/JIR.S163248. eCollection 2018. , Word Count: 177
In this review, we provide an overview of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved clinical uses of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) as well as information about the ongoing studies and preclinical research to expand the use of VNS to additional applications. VNS is currently FDA approved for therapeutic use in patients aged >12 years with drug-resistant epilepsy and depression. Recent studies of VNS in in vivo systems have shown that it has anti-inflammatory properties which has led to more preclinical research aimed at expanding VNS treatment across a wider range of inflammatory disorders. Although the signaling pathway and mechanism by which VNS affects inflammation remain unknown, VNS has shown promising results in treating chronic inflammatory disorders such as sepsis, lung injury, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and diabetes. It is also being used to control pain in fibromyalgia and migraines. This new preclinical research shows that VNS bears the promise of being applied to a wider range of therapeutic applications.
KEYWORDS: autonomic circuits; inflammation; pediatrics; peripheral nerve stimulation; vagus nerve stimulation
PMID: 29844694 PMCID: PMC5961632 DOI: 10.2147/JIR.S163248
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