Implantable Device Can Be Remotely Controlled to Deliver Drugs
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine and the University of Illinois have developed a new wireless device can be implanted in the brain and remotely activated to deliver drugs. The technology is the width of a human hair and has been demonstrated in mice first.
Eventually, this device could be used to treat pain, depression, epilepsy, and other neurological disorders in humans by targeting therapies to specific brain circuits. The researchers, who published their work in Cell, made the device capable of delivering drugs directly into the brain with the remote push of a button.
One day it may even be possible that therapeutic drugs could be activated with light, according to co-principal investigator Michael R. Bruchas, PhD, associate professor of anesthesiology and neurobiology at Washington University.
“With one of these tiny devices implanted, we could theoretically deliver a drug to a specific brain region and activate that drug with light as needed,” Dr. Bruchas said in a statement. “This approach potentially could deliver therapies that are much more targeted but have fewer side effects.”
The new device has 4 chambers to carry drugs and is soft like brain tissue so it can remain in the brain and function for a long time without causing inflammation or neural damage, according to co-first author Jae-Woong Jeong, PhD. And similar devices that are more flexible could be of use in other areas of the body.
“We’ve successfully produced and demonstrated an implantable, cellular-scale microfluidic and micro-optical interface to biology, with application opportunities not only in the brain but in other parts of the nervous system and other organs as well,” said the study’s other co-principal investigator, John A. Rogers, PhD, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois.