Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation might reduce fear memory in fear-conditioned mice through an anti-neuroinflammatory mechanism  

作　　者：Yingjie Du Yue Zhang Yafan Bai Min Liu Congya Zhang Yimeng Chen Shaoyuan Li Peijing Rong Guyan Wang 

机构地区：[1]Department of Anesthesiology,Beijing Tongren Hospital,Capital Medical University,Beijing 100730,China [2]Department of Physiology,Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion,China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences,Beijing 100700,China [3]Institute of Basic Research in Clinical Medicine,China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences,Beijing 100700,China

出　　处：《Chinese Medical Journal》2025年第2期237-239,共3页中华医学杂志(英文版)

基　　金：supported by grants from the priming scientific research foundation for the junior researcher in Beijing Tongren Hospital,Capital Medical University(No.2023-YJJ-ZZL-018);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.82270411);the Beijing Hospitals Authority’s Ascent Plan(No.DFL20220203);the Capital’s Funds for Health Improvement and Research(No.CFH2024-2-2058).

摘　　要：To the Editor:Posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD),a severe psychiatric disorder post-trauma,is closely linked to fear memory.[1]Current treatments like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have limited effectiveness and side effects,necessitating new non-invasive approaches.PTSD often co-occurs with depression,and both are connected to inflammatory system disruptions,with increased proinflammatory cytokines in patients.[2,3]Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation(taVNS)shows promise for treating depression by reducing neuroinflammation.[4]taVNS combines auricular acupuncture(a technique in Traditional Chinese Medicine)and neuroanatomy,targeting the auricular branch of the vagus nerve to influence brain regions like the thalamus and hippocampus.This study hypothesizes that taVNS may reduce fear memory among fear-conditioned mice through the modulation of inflammatory responses.We utilized a fear-conditioning mouse model to evaluate the impact on freezing behavior and quantify inflammatory markers,including corticosterone,interleukin-10(IL-10)and interleukin-1β(IL-1β),within both serum and brain regions.

关 键 词：proinflammatory cytokines stress disorder ptsd fear memory auricular vagus nerve stimulation tavns shows transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation fear memory current inflammatory system psychiatric disorder 

分 类 号：R749.5[医药卫生—神经病学与精神病学]