Quantification of cerebral nicotinic α7 acetylcholine receptors (α7 nAChRs) under gastric stimulation of the vagus nerve in piglets

Introduction
Electrical gastric vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) shifts the sympathetic-vagal balance toward a parasympathetic predominance (1). We aim to assess central changes in α7 nAChR-mediated transmission and hypothesize that VNS changes the parasympathetic tone by changing the α7 nAChR availability in the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS) and distinct cortical and subcortical regions (2).

Material and Methods
Following a standard 35-frames, 120-min protocol for dynamic brain PET imaging, data from eight piglets (15.6 ± 3.2 kg, ~6 weeks) were acquired post injection of 194.8 ± 9.4 MBq of [18F]DBT-10 (3) followed by T1-MPRAGE MRI: three baseline, two with infusion of the acetylcholine esterase inhibitor physostigmine (0.04 mg/kg, 1 ml/min, at 10 min prior to tracer injection; 0.24 mg/kg, 1 ml/min, at tracer injection/scan start over 120 min) and three with VNS in repeated sequences of 0.5 Hz over 5 min, 5 min pause started at scan start. TACs were analyzed using a 2-tissue compartment model involving a metabolite-corrected arterial input function to generate individual total distribution volumes (VT) as receptor parameter.

Results
Compared to baseline, we observed an increase of the mean VT after physostigmine infusion (61 %) as well as after VNS (28 %) without major alterations of K1 in the NTS (Figure 1 and 2).

Conclusion
These initial data indicate blood-flow-independent changes under VNS as compared with baseline suggesting an increase in α7 nAChR availability although the changes appear more heterogeneous in VNS as compared with physostigmine. The finding is in contrast to our hypothesis expecting lower α7 nAChR-availability as a result of increased acetylcholine release following VNS. We speculate that higher VT under VNS may reflect an increase in affinity of the α7 nAChR or result in an upregulation of the α7 nAChR. Increase of VT following physostigmine administration could be related to a positive allosteric effect on the α7 nAChR. Furthermore, the results of this study allow sample size estimations for further preclinical and clinical studies.