This broad review summarizes evidence that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) can provide neuromodulatory, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects across neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's, and discusses its mechanisms and clinical applications.

VNS targets the gut–brain axis and inflammation—mechanisms relevant to PD that offer a minimally invasive, translational therapeutic approach—but the paper is a high-level review with limited PD-specific, actionable targets or experimental data.

Neurodegenerative diseases are a group of chronic, progressive neurological disorders caused by the degeneration and functional loss of neurons and glial cells, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), Huntington's disease (HD). Although numerous treatments are available for these diseases, therapeutic outcomes remain unsatisfactory because of their poorly understood pathogeneses of these diseases. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), a noninvasive or minimally invasive neuromodulation technique, has shown significant potential in mitigating neurodegenerative conditions. This review explores the mechanisms of action and clinical applications of VNS in neurodegenerative diseases, providing novel insights for the development of novel treatments.