ReviewArthritis research & therapy2015
The interface between cholinergic pathways and the immune system and its relevance to arthritis.
Review in Arthritis research & therapy, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Polygenic risk scores indicates genetic overlap between peripheral pain syndromes and chronic postsurgical pain.Neurogenetics · 2020Trial
- Effect of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation on muscle activity in the gastrointestinal tract (transVaGa): a prospective clinical trial.International journal of colorectal disease · 2019Trial
- Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy and Impaired Inflammatory Reflex.Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism · 2026Review
- Vagal Afferent Stimulation Attenuates LPS-Induced Acute Lung Inflammation in Association with Reduced Spleen Weight and Increased CellTrace-Positive Signals in the Lung.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Neuroimmune Regulation for Acute Kidney Injury Therapy: Insights Along the Path From Bench to Bedside.Seminars in nephrology · 2026Review
- Neuroimmune Control of Inflammation in Acute Kidney Injury and Multiorgan Dysfunction.Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN · 2025Review
- The molecular components of the anti-inflammatory cholinergic pathway are extrasplenic.PloS one · 2025Article
- Alpha 7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors signaling boosts cell-cell interactions in macrophages effecting anti-inflammatory and organ protection.Communications biology · 2023Article
- The Effect of α7nAChR Signaling on T Cells and Macrophages and Their Clinical Implication in the Treatment of Rheumatic Diseases.Neurochemical research · 2022Review
- Cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway and connective tissue diseases.Inflammopharmacology · 2021Review
- The effective interplay of (non-) selective NSAIDs with neostigmine in animal models of analgesia and inflammation.BMC pharmacology & toxicology · 2021Article
- Sympathetic activation: a potential link between comorbidities and COVID-19.The FEBS journal · 2020Review
- The greater inflammatory pathway-high clinical potential by innovative predictive, preventive, and personalized medical approach.The EPMA journal · 2020Review
- Vagal mechanisms as neuromodulatory targets for the treatment of metabolic disease.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2019Review
- Neuroimmune interactions and kidney disease.Kidney research and clinical practice · 2019Review
- Bioelectronic Approaches to Control Neuroimmune Interactions in Acute Kidney Injury.Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine · 2019Review
- From neuroimunomodulation to bioelectronic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.Bioelectronics in medicine · 2018Article
- Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in neuropathic and inflammatory pain.FEBS letters · 2018Review
- Pre-symptomatic autoimmunity in rheumatoid arthritis: when does the disease start?Seminars in immunopathology · 2017Review
- Neuroimmune Interactions in Inflammation and Acute Kidney Injury.Frontiers in immunology · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The nervous and immune systems are likely to be interacting in arthritis, with the possible involvement of both neural and non-neural cholinergic transmission. Centrally acting muscarinic agonists, electrical stimulation of the vagus and treatment with nicotinic receptor agonists can all act systemically to reduce inflammation, although the responsible pathways are incompletely understood. While this 'cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway' is widely viewed as a significant pathophysiological mechanism controlling inflammation, the evidence supporting this view is critically reviewed and considered inconclusive; an alternative pathway via sympathetic nerves is implicated. This review also discusses how cholinergic pathways, both neural and non-neural, may impact on inflammation and specifically arthritis. Nicotinic agonists have been reported to reduce the incidence and severity of murine arthritis, albeit an observation we could not confirm, and clinical studies in rheumatoid arthritis have been proposed and/or are underway. While the therapeutic potential of nicotinic agonists and vagal stimulation is clear, we suggest that the 'cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway' should not be uncritically embraced as a significant factor in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.