Date: Dec 31, 2015 Author: Nicole Oran Source: MedCityNews (
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Dallas-based MicroTransponder is looking to treat neurological conditions with its aired Vagus Nerve Stimulation, which is designed to help patients with tinnitus as well as stroke victims. The company, which has completed clinical studies, recently announced a $5.5 million round of funding (planned to be used to launch the product in Europe) and now have a paper published in the journal Stroke.
For the treatment of tinnitus, chronic ringing in the ears, they have developed what they call the Serenity System. For stroke victims who have upper limb mobility issues, they have created the Vivistim System.
In an interview, CEO Frank McEachern shared about the recent financing and what MicroTransponder is focused on with its technology:
Can you explain how the MicroTransponder technology actually works?
The Vagus Nerve Stimulation is a pacemaker-type device implanted in the chest. A wire reaches the left vagus nerve in the neck. That system implant generates the electrical current that stimulates the vagus nerve. That basic kind of implant has been used for a long time, but for different purposes -- to treat epilepsy. It reduces seizures and has been FDA approved.
In terms of what is being implanted, this is something that is not unique, but what's novel is when we stimulate the vagus nerve, we are taking advantage of the fact that the nerve is part of the learning system. When we stimulate the vagus nerve, it releases some neurotransmitters that makes what happens in the immediate environment important to the brain.
We get a window where we can generate importance to the brain so that we can direct learning. No one has used neurostimulation to direct learning like we have.
Can you elaborate on the issue of tinnitus and how your device really treats this condition?
Tinnitus, ringing in the ear, is not an ear problem. It's a brain problem. What happens is there is an abnormal circuit in the brain that is hyper-active. In part of the auditory cortex, a bunch of neurons are firing together and it creates a phantom sound. What we do, is we go in and play frequencies outside of the tinnitus frequency and re-normalize that broken circuit.
Although tinnitus is an issue in the brain, originally, the insult occurs in the ear from a loud noise. Right now, it's the number one disability for someone in the military. What's happening is there is damage to the cochlea. Each portion of the cochlea will capture a unique feature of frequency. With certain trauma, one part can be damaged. The cochlea matches one-to-one with your auditory cortex, sending input to one part of that cortext -- with damage, it doesn't make that connection and your brain looking for information from neighboring regions.
That's abornmal, and the result is that a large area of the cortex is communicating between itself, which is faulty. Our device is designed to re-normalize this information transference.
Is there any similarity to shock therapy in how the brain's system reacts to this?
I wouldn't compare it to that. Shock therapy disrupts the system, but with this it is focused on the vagus nerve to release these neurotransmitters that make the brain plastic for a temporary period so we can teach it.
Nobody has done this kind of stimulation to direct brain learning. Say you take a drug that affects the same neurotransmitters, it just floods your system which doesn't allow the brain to make certain events important.
Beyond tinnitus, how does this work for stroke victims?
A person who has had a stroke, they do regular rehab. After a stroke, about four months later, many have recovered upper limb functions, but about half haven't. It becomes harder to show improvement through other therapies. It's hard to continue improvement after the first time of growth, you kind of plateau.
With this, each time a patient does a movement, they get a moment of vagus nerve stimulation. It makes the event important. These are basic motions, but the adult brain doesn't know these functions are important. You need to make new connections, but your brain doesn't recognize that these basic items are critical and important. They were as a child, but as an a adult, now, we can hijack the system to force these activities to be important again.
