Cell Study Maps Brain–Nerve Circuit That Can Dramatically Limit Heart‑Attack Damage in Mice

A new study from University of California San Diego, published Tuesday in the journal Cell, identifies a specific set of vagus‑nerve sensory neurons that appear to worsen heart‑attack injury in mice—and shows that shutting down those cells can almost eliminate the damage. Led by neuroscientist Vineet Augustine, the team used genetic and imaging tools to trace how TRPV1‑expressing vagal neurons literally wrap around the injured area of the heart during an experimental heart attack and help drive harmful inflammation and pump failure. When researchers selectively disabled this small neuron subset, they saw striking improvements in cardiac pumping efficiency and electrical signals associated with normal contraction, suggesting a discrete brain–heart–immune circuit that could be targeted therapeutically. The work builds on two decades of research into "neuroimmune" pathways and on vagus‑nerve stimulation devices already approved for rheumatoid arthritis, but goes further by pinpointing a very specific population of nerve fibers linked to myocardial injury. While the findings are in mice and years away from human application, cardiologists and neuroscientists say they open a new front for drug and device development aimed at dialing down the body’s own nervous‑system–driven damage during and after heart attacks.