Tiny pulses of electricity may provide the next big advance in treating diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
The pulses would be delivered via implanted devices that stimulate the vagus nerve, and they are showing promise in people with arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, including Crohn’s, and multiple sclerosis.
Currently, autoimmune diseases are usually treated with drugs that suppress the immune system. Some of these drugs are given by infusion, and can cost tens of thousands of dollars a year. They also increase a person’s risk of infections.
Vagus nerve stimulation might offer a way to augment or replace drug treatment, doctors say.
“Neural signals have the ability to reflexively control aspects of the immune system that frankly, nobody had thought about before,” says Dr. Kevin Tracey, president of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health on Long Island.
Tracey co-founded SetPoint Medical, a company that hopes to market a vagus nerve stimulation system for autoimmune diseases.
