Researchers at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, in collaboration with GE Research, have harnessed ultrasound technology to non-invasively reduce inflammation in the body. Results from human studies, published in the Brain Stimulation, point to the possibility of using bioelectronic medicine and neuromodulation to treat inflammatory diseases traditionally treated only with drugs.
Led by Feinstein Institutes’ Sangeeta S. Chavan, PhD, and Stavros Zanos, MD, PhD, along with GE Research’s Christopher Puleo, PhD, Senior Principal Engineer and Jeff Ashe, MS, Principal Engineer in biomedical electronics, delivered spleen-focused ultrasound stimulation (FUS) or sham stimulation, to 70 healthy participants. Through careful blood analyses and measurements, they investigated the levels of endotoxin-induced tumour necrosis factor (TNF), an inflammatory protein that is released by white blood cells and circulates in the bloodstream. They found that spleen FUS has an anti-inflammatory effect, lowering TNF production from blood cells for more than two hours, with TNF returning to baseline levels by 24 hours after stimulation; sham stimulation does not affect TNF production.
“From diabetes and obesity to cardiovascular diseases and cancer, inflammation is a major pathogenic mechanism in many diseases,” said Dr Zanos, Associate Professor at the Feinstein Institutes’ Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine. “These first-in-human results are exciting because they demonstrate the potential ultrasound stimulation therapy holds to treat diseases, non-invasively, with existing technology.”