ArticleBioelectronic medicine2020
Targeting the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway with vagus nerve stimulation in patients with Covid-19?
Article in Bioelectronic medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and Safety of Vagus Nerve Stimulation for Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Systematic Review and Methodological Evaluation of Randomized Controlled Trials.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Pooled it
- Feasibility and acceptance of transdermal auricular vagus nerve stimulation using a TENS device in females suffering from long COVID fatigue.Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2025Trial
- Neuroimmune Regulation in Posttraumatic Bone Repair: From Inflammatory Transition to Neurovascular Coupling and Functional Recovery.Journal of cellular physiology · 2026Review
- Understanding neuroinflammation in post-COVID-19 syndrome: biological mechanisms, diagnostic biomarkers, and therapeutic prospects.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- Neural-tumor crosstalk and molecular targeting: mechanisms and therapeutic implications in cancer neuroscience.Cellular oncology (Dordrecht, Netherlands) · 2026Review
- Impact of Pulmonary Rehabilitation on Physical, Mental Health and Quality of Life in Children with Post-COVID-19 Condition: A 12-Month Quasi-Experimental Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Integrative perspectives on electroacupuncture modulation of vagal-cholinergic and neuro-immune-metabolic regulation in long COVID.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2026Review
- The bio-intelligence circuit: a hypothesis-generating systems framework linking mitochondrial stress, innate immune signaling, and autonomic regulation in chronic inflammation.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Klotho microinjection into the RVLM attenuates acute kidney injuryResearch in pharmaceutical sciences · 2025Article
- Musculoskeletal and Neuropathic Pain in COVID-19.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Cholinergic α7 nAChR signaling suppresses SARS-CoV-2 infection and inflammation in lung epithelial cells.Journal of molecular cell biology · 2024Article
- Neuroimmune nexus in the pathophysiology and therapy of inflammatory disorders: Role of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.Pharmacological research · 2023Review
- Auricular vagus nerve stimulation: a new option to treat inflammation in COVID-19?Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2023Article
- Editorial: Neuromodulation in COVID-19: From basic research to clinical applications.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- The diversity of neuroimmune circuits controlling lung inflammation.American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology · 2023Review
- Explainable AI for clinical and remote health applications: a survey on tabular and time series data.Artificial intelligence review · 2023Article
- Citicoline and COVID-19: vis-à-vis conjectured.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2022Review
- Old drugs, new tricks: leveraging known compounds to disrupt coronavirus-induced cytokine storm.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2022Article
- Inflammatory reflex disruption in COVID-19.Clinical & experimental neuroimmunology · 2022Review
- The Human-Restricted Isoform of the α7 nAChR, CHRFAM7A: A Double-Edged Sword in Neurological and Inflammatory Disorders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), at the origin of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, is characterized by a dramatic cytokine storm in some critical patients with COVID-19. This storm is due to the release of high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-1 β, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and chemokines by respiratory epithelial and dendritic cells, and macrophages. We hypothesize that this cytokine storm and the worsening of patients' health status can be dampened or even prevented by specifically targeting the vagal-driven cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (CAP). The CAP is a concept that involves an anti-inflammatory effect of vagal efferents by the release of acetylcholine (ACh). Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha7 subunit (α7nAChRs) is required for ACh inhibition of macrophage-TNF release and cytokine modulation. Hence, targeting the α7nAChRs through vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) could be of interest in the management of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Indeed, through the wide innervation of the organism by the vagus nerve, especially the lungs and gastrointestinal tract, VNS appears as a serious candidate for a few side effect treatment that could dampen or prevent the cytokine storm observed in COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms. Finally, a continuous vagal tone monitoring in patients with COVID-19 could be used as a predictive marker of COVID-19 illness course but also as a predictive marker of response to COVID-19 treatment such as VNS or others.
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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.