Discovery of a New Method That May Help Treat Asthma

A study published in the scientific journal Immunity has shown that stimulating the nerve in the outer ear may help reduce inflammation in the lungs, potentially offering a new therapeutic approach in the future.

Researchers examined the auricular branch of the vagus nerve, the only part of this nerve that reaches the skin’s surface. During experiments, this branch was stimulated in laboratory mice suffering from allergic airway inflammation.

The stimulation was found to increase levels of the signaling molecule CGRPβ in the airways, significantly reducing lung inflammation. Conversely, when the activity of the nerve fibers was inhibited, the disease became more severe.

According to the researchers, this procedure demonstrates for the first time a neural mechanism linking the skin of the outer ear to immune processes in the lungs, paving the way for the development of bioelectronic therapeutic approaches for inflammatory diseases, as opposed to traditional pharmaceutical methods.

According to RT (Russia Today), although the results are currently limited to animal studies, scientists are already working on designing a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of a specialized device for stimulating the auricular nerve in human asthma patients.