Vagus nerve stimulation, currently FDA-approved for drug-resistant epilepsy and depression, shows promising preclinical potential for treating chronic inflammatory disorders and pain.
Vagus nerve stimulation, currently approved for epilepsy and depression, shows preclinical promise for treating a wider range of inflammatory and pain disorders.
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.
Johnson et al. (2018) conducted a review in Epilepsy, depression, and inflammatory disorders. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) was evaluated. Vagus nerve stimulation, currently FDA-approved for drug-resistant epilepsy and depression, shows promising preclinical potential for treating chronic inflammatory disorders and pain.
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