Recent advances have shown that neural pathways are able to regulate immunity and inflammation. The cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway is a well-characterized neural circuit that consists of the vagus nerve to spleen circuit, which has been stimulated with implantable devices to improve autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.~Recently, the use of pulsed ultrasonic waves to modulate the neuroimmune pathway has gained interest due to its potential in treating inflammatory disorders non-invasively. This study is designed to test the hypothesis that pulsed ultrasound stimulation can be used effectively in human subjects to control pathogenic inflammatory responses. The overall goal of this project is to determine which, if any, ultrasound stimulation protocols are able to restrict the inflammatory response of immune cells collected from healthy subjects post-ultrasound stimulation.~Four different levels of ultrasound intensity (doses) will be tested in this study to determine the dose(s) capable of producing an anti-inflammatory effect. The doses will be defined in terms of mechanical index and each subject will receive two different doses of ultrasound. In addition, the study will investigate the efficacy of cervical vagus (neck)-targeted ultrasound, given that it may have an effect similar to spleen-targeted ultrasound through upstream vagus nerve modulation.
This is a feasibility study to determine whether pulsed ultrasound stimulation targeting the splenic nerve or the cervical vagus nerve can elicit an anti-inflammatory immune response in healthy volunteers.