The implant is applied to the vagus nerve. (SetPoint Medical)
with an electronic implant, the California company SetPoint Medical wants to stimulate the nervous system and thus treat autoimmune diseases.
Rheumatoid Arthritis is a disease that afflicts mainly the elderly. The joints swell and ache, freedom of movement is restricted, which in turn is not good for the circulation. So far the symptoms are attenuated with drugs that can sometimes have unintended consequences as in heart disease. The Californian company SetPoint Medical wants to keep up with an electronic implant, however: In a first pilot study, the pill-sized device could relieve arthritic symptoms in six of eight patients
The small device is implanted in the patient’s neck.. There it is applied to the vagus nerve, which passes on the state of internal organs and the brain controls basic, unconsciously running body functions such as heartbeat and digestion. The capsule stimulates the vagus nerve at regular intervals with weak electric shocks. They breed to the spleen, where the activation of T cells and macrophages regulates the immune system down. Because they are active in rheumatoid arthritis in the joints and cause inflammation.
Other electrical implants have been tested against movement disorders and mental disorders. By stimulating the vagus nerve to try some research groups to tackle epilepsy and depression and heart failure. New to the approach of SetPoint Medical is to use the technique against immune diseases. <- RSPEAK_STOP ->
SetPoint Medical has already tested the device from another company in animal experiments and clinical trials to treat epilepsy. The new, self-developed by SetPoint Medical stimulating capsule is smaller, the electrical stimulation designed specifically for rheumatoid arthritis. The company will soon launch another study with patients suffering from Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disease that causes chronic inflammation of the bowel.
What began with pacemakers and similar devices, now wide to a whole new field from said Kenneth Gustafson, medical technician at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He is working on nerves using electrical stimulation to treat ailments related to the urinary bladder. “Researchers take existing technology and adapt it to all these new applications,” says Gustafson. The big advantage of neuromodulators is that they do not have the side effects of conventional drugs. “Electrical stimulation works much more selective,” says Gustafson. “It aims to neuronal connections from, do not behave as expected.” Other organs, however, remain unaffected. That in bioelectric therapies lies a large, untapped potential, has spread in the pharmaceutical industry. The company GlaxoSmithKline has already responded: In early August, he invested $ 27 million in SetPoint Medical <- AUTHOR MARKER DATA BEGIN -> ( Susan Young ). / <- RSPEAK_STOP -> (nbo)
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