Effects of Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (dTMS) on Anti-inflammatory Gut Bacterial Species in Obesity

Growing evidence highlights the crucial role of gut microbiota in affecting different aspects of obesity. Potential mechanisms for microbial control over eating behavior include microbiota influence on reward and satiety pathways, neurotransmitters release, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis modulation. A methodology proved to be effective in modulating orexigenic/anorexigenic pathways and food-reward system in obesity is the dTMS. Considering its assets, we hypothesized a potential role of dTMS in inducing weight loss in obesity also via microbiota composition modulation. Twenty-two obese subjects (5 M, 17 F; 44.6±2.5 years; BMI 37.5±1.1 kg/m2) were allocated into 3 groups receiving 15 sessions (3 per week for 5 weeks) of high frequency (18 Hz, HF), low frequency (1 Hz, LF) dTMS, or sham stimulation. Fecal samples were collected at baseline and after 5 weeks of treatment. Total bacterial DNA was extracted from fecal samples using the QIAamp DNA Stool Mini Kit (Qiagen, Italy) and analyzed by a metagenomics approach (Ion Personal Genome Machine). After 5 weeks, a weight loss in HF (-3.4±1.0%; p