Coatings and surface treatment
Overcoming FBR in the brain could pave the way for bioelectronic devices that restore lost function.
“What we found is that if you use such a potent immunosuppressant anti-inflammatory drug, you don’t just stop inflammation and scarring, you also damage and stop neuroregeneration,” he explains. “It’s not a feasible translatable action. So, our question was: ‘How do we bring down inflammation to reduce the scarring without bringing down regeneration of the nervous system?’”
Bothersome inflammasome The answer, as Barone discovered in a study using mice, was to inhibit inflammasome – the innate macromolecular signalling platform that induces inflammation. “What we found is that by working on the inflammasome, which is this molecule inside the macrophages, you could reduce the secretion of interleukin-1, which causes the bad inflammation [scarring] but doesn’t affect the good inflammation [regeneration].” Like Veiseh’s study, Barone’s research will have wider application in conjunction with existing devices and in combination with other strategies, such as the use of flexible electrodes and soft interfaces. “There is no one single strategy that really is going to be the strategy for translation,” he says. There are still obstacles ahead in the path to overcoming FBR, but with innovative studies like Veiseh’s and Barone’s underway, there could eventually be methods that make new IMD innovations viable in the clinic. “When it comes to chronic sensing,” Veiseh says, “there’s a big need for glucose with diabetes patients – but I think there are other biomarkers that could really inform people of their health status.” Veiseh also mentions the emerging concept of
106
“electroceuticals”, wherein, by activating certain neurons in the body – within the brain or even the peripheral nerves – a similar therapeutic effect to that of drugs can be achieved.
Barone, meanwhile, is looking into how inflammasome inhibition could be used to further the emerging field of neuroprosthetics. “At the moment”, he says, “bioelectronic devices are mostly used to modulate function”. He gives the example of a brain stimulator used in patients with Parkinson’s disease. “You implant electricity to disrupt the network in order to make patients shake less,” he says. “Or you have the spinal cord stimulation, where we interfere with the signal going through the spinal cord for people to feel less pain. But it’s all about neuromodulation rather than disruption.” The new generation of neural interfaces, however, may be able to “restore function that has been lost”, Barone says. “So people who aren’t able to talk could talk again; people who can’t see could see again; and people who are able to unable to walk could walk again.” Miraculous as these solutions sound, Barone believes that we will begin to see them in the not-too-distant future. “It’s not movie sci-fi [stuff],” he says. “There are already company staffed clinical trials – this is what Elon Musk is targeting with Neuralink. So I think the next 10 years will be a revolution. Probably more will happen in the next 10 years than we have seen in the last 100. It’s extremely exciting.”
First, though, we’ve got to remove the barrier of FBR. Once we’ve achieved that – and Veiseh and Barone are confident that we will – miracles really might happen. ●
Medical Device Developments /
www.nsmedicaldevices.com
Mopic/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140
