ARTICLE SUMMARY:
In a fireside chat at BioFuture, Feinstein Institutes CEO Kevin Tracey was optimistic that bioelectronics, and vagus nerve stimulation specifically, has the potential to extend the healthy lifespan on a population-wide basis, much the way better control of infectious disease led to major gains in life expectancy in the last century.
Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has such powerful potential that, over time, its ability to eradicate inflammation could greatly improve health, with as significant an impact on lifespan extension as better hygiene and infection control had in the last century, Kevin Tracey, MD, a recognized pioneer in the field of bioelectronic medicine, told attendees at a recent BioFuture 2024 conference in New York.
Speaking during a fireside chat, he noted that several FDA-approved, first-generation VNS devices are already on the market for refractory epilepsy and depression and have also demonstrated potential in ischemic stroke, traumatic brain injury, and neurodegenerative diseases. But these are efficacious only in limited patient populations.
Future applications are even more exciting, Tracey continued. Feinstein scientists in collaboration with researchers from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, both located on Long Island, NY, are exploring cancer neuroscience, leading to a role for VNS in modulating tumor growth and metastasis. VNS also has the potential to alleviate the side effects of cytokine therapies used to treat cancer.
“These are testable hypotheses—not flying cars around New York City—some of this is already done preclinical studies that have been published in high-impact journals, and it works,” Tracey said.
