The human body has two communication systems: the nervous system and the endocrine system. In the endocrine system, communication is carried out through hormones. Meanwhile, the nervous system, which is composed of 86 billion neurons, communicates with the different parts of the body through chemical and electrical signals.
Photo: YouTube/Northwell HealthHence, the use of electricity to treat certain medical conditions such as paralysis, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and epilepsy is a field that several experts have been pursuing for years through Deep Brain Stimulation.
Deep Brain Stimulation: The Triumphs and Failures
Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is the process of implanting an electrode in the brain in order to stimulate specific neurons to treat a particular medical condition like clinical depression.
In 2010, there were many small studies that supported the efficacy of DBS.
Photo: YouTube/Northwell Health However, in 2013, two large clinical trials failed to attain similar positive results in treating depression within their respective timeframes. Fifty percent of the participants of the larger trial did experience improvement after two years, but, unfortunately, the trial had already stopped.
Nevertheless, there were those who continued to believe that DBS could be of great benefit to mankind. One of them was Sameer Sheth, a neurosurgeon at the Baylor College of Medicine. He and his colleagues carried a clinical trial in 2020, using a different methodology than the “one size fits all” approach of the previous clinical trials that failed.
Sheth’s team has realized the importance of identifying dysregulated brain circuits before treating a neurological disorder. In the case of Parkinson’s disease, damaged neurons are located at the part of the brain that is called substantia nigra. But, in the case of epilepsy, the condition is more complex since the origin of the seizures may occur in various parts of the brain.
Photo: YouTube/Northwell Health Hence, the initial step that Sheth and his colleagues did was to record and map out the brain activity of their first patient with severe depression during the trial.
“Those recordings really individualized our understanding of that single patient’s depression networks — networks regulating mood and affective cognitive processes to really drill down on what’s wrong,” explained Sheth.
Afterward, his team began to deliver periodic pulses of electricity to two specific brain regions: the subcallosal singulate and the ventral striatum. These regions are believed to be involved in regulating positive and negative emotions.
Photo: YouTube/Northwell Health In just a matter of days, their patient experienced a 50% reduction in his symptoms. After 22 weeks, their patient’s depression was in remission. Following this success, Sheth’s team enrolled more patients in the trial.
Bioelectric Medicine: Taking Further Steps Forward
Chad Bouton, an engineer and medical researcher at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, had been experimenting with DBS to help patients who were suffering from paralysis since 2010.
But, in 2019, he started to have another idea — using electricity without implanting electrodes in a patient’s brain. That was because some cases of pain or numbness were caused by a spinal cord or nerve that was just partially damaged. And so, they conducted their own trial using patches with electrodes that were attached outside their patients’ bodies. The method proved successful, and the team believes that their type of bioelectric therapy will be affordable to many people once the Food and Drug Administration approves it.
Photo: YouTube/Northwell Health Kevin Tracey, a neurosurgeon and Chief Executive Officer of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, decided to pursue an in-depth study of sepsis after a child died in his arms. He concluded that DBS could also help in controlling inflammation that causes sepsis.
Tracey has already discovered a protein called tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which is responsible for producing inflammation that neutralizes invading pathogens. However, TNF also has a destructive ability to also attack the body’s own tissues, resulting in sepsis, shock, and cytokine storms.
While Tracey’s discovery has helped in the development of drugs to regulate TNF, they are not effective in all cases of severe inflammation. So Tracey and his team continued the research and found out that by stimulating a reflexive system called the vagus nerve, the TNF could be restricted.
Photo: YouTube/Northwell Health “We discovered that electrical signaling in the vagus nerve is like the brake line in your car. It stops the TNF system, the inflammatory system, from spinning out of control,” said Tracey.
Tracey’s team invented a very small device that could be implanted inside the neck, which could stimulate the vagus nerve whenever necessary to control the TNF and stop excessive inflammation.
Meanwhile, there are other experts who are also devoted to the research of bioelectric medicine. But in the case of Michael Levin, a biologist and computer scientist at the Wyss Institute in Boston, he is more into altering “the spatial distribution of electronic signals in different areas of the body to encourage groups of cells to work together to heal or regenerate” than in cell stimulation.
According to Levin, DBS and vagus nerve stimulation are effective applications of bioelectric medicine, but he wanted people to know that it is just the tip of the iceberg.
Provide Mammograms
Support those fighting Breast Cancer at The Breast Cancer Site for free! →
WhizzcoOriginal Article
