J Douglas Bremner, Nil Z Gurel, Yunshen Jiao, Matthew T Wittbrodt, Oleksiy M Levantsevych, Minxuan Huang, Hewon Jung, MdMobashir H Shandhi, Joy Beckwith, Isaias Herring, Mark H Rapaport, Nancy Murrah, Emily Driggers, Yi-An Ko, MhmtJamil L Alkhalaf, Majd Soudan, Jiawei Song, Benson S Ku, Lucy Shallenberger, Allison N Hankus, Jonathon A Nye, Jeanie Park, Viola Vaccarino, Amit J Shah, Omer T Inan, Bradley D Pearce
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a highly disabling condition associated with alterations in multiple neurobiological systems, including increases in inflammatory function. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) decreases inflammation, however few studies have examined the effects of non-invasive VNS on physiology in human subjects, and no studies in patients with PTSD. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of transcutaneous cervical VNS (tcVNS) on inflammatory responses to stress. Thirty subjects with a history of exposure to traumatic stress with (N = 10) and without (N = 20) PTSD underwent exposure to stressful tasks immediately followed by active or sham tcVNS and measurement of multiple biomarkers of inflammation (interleukin-(IL)-6, IL-2, IL-1β, Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNFα) and Interferon gamma (IFNγ) over multiple time points...
December 2020: Brain, behavior, & immunity health