Without diets and exercises: a miniature implant helps to lose weight, deceiving the brain

Today, hundreds of millions of people around the world are suffering from obesity, and, unfortunately, not in all cases, patients can lose weight through diet and exercise.

In more serious cases, experts resort to bariatric surgery. Operations of this kind (for example, reducing the volume of the stomach) are effective, but at the same time, quite dangerous, since a number of side effects can accompany them.

©Depositphotos / Xudong Wang (right) demonstrates a new implant that will help deceive the brain and reduce weight.

Specialists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison presented an alternative strategy that will help patients lose weight while avoiding complications. We are talking about the stimulation of the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain to the abdominal cavity.

It is known that the vagus nerve is one of the "ways of communication", due to which the brain receives a signal about saturation from the stomach. After this, the appetite is suppressed.

Earlier it was proved that artificial stimulation of the vagus nerve helps to deceive the brain and reduce the feeling of hunger. The Food and Drug Administration of the United States approved the first device with a similar effect in 2015. This electronic implant resembles a pacemaker and is rather cumbersome as well as difficult to manage. In addition, the device must be connected to external power sources for recharging.

In the course of the new work, the researchers took into account these nuances and created an innovative implant - a nanogenerator that is flexible and safe for the body. It does not require charging from an external battery and at the same time is miniature - less than a centimeter in diameter.

According to the developers, the implant is inserted into the patient's body using a "minimally invasive" procedure.

The principle of operation of the device is as follows: it is attached to the surface of the stomach and, due to the natural contractions of the latter, generates weak electrical impulses. They reach the vagus nerve and stimulate it, after which the signal of saturation is transmitted to the brain. At the same time for the "fraudulent maneuver" requires a very small amount of food.

"Impulses correlate with the movements of the stomach, enhancing the natural reaction and helping to control food intake," explains one of the leading authors of the work, Professor Xudong Wang.

Actually, due to the fact that the wavy contraction of the stomach walls (peristalsis) provides power to the device, it does not need to charge from an external battery. At the same time, this means that the implant will only stimulate the vagus nerve when the stomach is reduced.

"It automatically responds to our body functions, causing stimulation when necessary," adds Xudong Wang.

His team conducted the first preclinical testing of the device in obese rats. During the first 18 days after the implant was introduced, the weight of the rodents decreased on average by 35%. For another 75 days, the effect persisted.

True, after removing the device, the animals again began to consume more food and began to gain weight. Thus, it turns out that the implant can provide only a temporary effect, and then the patients will have to maintain a new weight on their own (by the way, a special diet can help with this).

Scientists report that they have already patented the device and have begun the next stage of testing on larger animal models. If they succeed, a clinical trial phase will follow.

"We expect the device to be more efficient and convenient to use than other technologies," concluded Professor Wang.

Scientific article with a more detailed description of the development published in the journal Nature Communications.

By the way, some experts believe that for more effective weight loss, the vagus nerve must not be stimulated, but frozen.

The illustrations are used in agreement with the Depositphotos photobank