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    Home > Biochemistry News > Biotechnology News > PNAs: a new device to open the blood-brain barrier and help the treatment of brain diseases

    PNAs: a new device to open the blood-brain barrier and help the treatment of brain diseases

    • Last Update: 2020-01-06
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Dr Yu Xiaocheng, Professor Thanh Nguyen, and his graduate students showed the source of the material sample map they developed: engineers at the University of Connecticut designed a non-toxic, biodegradable device that can help drugs enter brain tissue from blood vessels - a path traditionally blocked by human defense mechanisms The results were published in PNAS Https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910343117 the blood vessels in the brain are arranged by closely connected cells, forming the so-called blood-brain barrier, which isolates bacteria and toxins from the brain, but this blood-brain barrier will also hinder the treatment of brain diseases such as cancer The safe and effective way to open this barrier is ultrasound Focused ultrasound at the right position can vibrate the cells in the inner wall of the blood vessel, which is enough to open a short crack in the blood-brain barrier so that the drug can pass through However, in order to achieve this, the current ultrasound technology needs to arrange multiple ultrasound sources around a person's skull, and then use MRI to guide the ultrasound operator to focus the ultrasound in the right position This method is cumbersome and difficult, and it is very expensive to take medicine every time Another way is to implant the device and apply ultrasound locally in the brain It is more accurate and repeatable, but most ultrasound transducers contain toxic substances, such as lead, which must be removed after use, which requires surgery and may damage brain tissue Professor Nguyen's laboratory specializes in piezoelectric biomaterials Piezoelectric transforms physical strain (such as bending or compression) into electrical energy, and vice versa It is an ideal material for sensors that use current to produce vibration Researchers have proposed how to spin biodegradable polymer poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA) into micro nanofibers with a width of only 200 nm and a length of tens to hundreds of microns When a high voltage is applied during this spinning process, the fibers are stretched and aligned so that they can be woven into a mesh Moreover, the arrangement of the fibers enhances their piezoelectric response, so that the electric energy consumed by the nanofiber PLLA is much less than that produced by the conventional polymer film These highly piezoelectric nanofibers allow researchers to create biodegradable, sensitive sensors that can measure organ pressure wirelessly and act as ultrasound transducers PLLA nanofibers with controllable and excellent piezoelectric properties are used in biodegradable implantable piezoelectric devices, PLLA is usually used to dissolve surgical sutures, which is a very safe biocompatible material Therefore, when the PLLA transducer was implanted into mice, the sensor was found to be safe for biodegradation Most importantly, the device can generate well controlled ultrasound, locally opening the blood-brain barrier, thus helping drugs injected into the blood enter brain tissue The ultrasound device can even act as a loudspeaker to produce audible sound or play music The application of PLLA nanofiber transducer in opening blood-brain barrier and drug delivery has been proved in vivo This is the first biodegradable transducer made of common and safe medical materials The research team also needs to study how to optimize the strength to form a good crack in the blood-brain barrier, which is wide enough to allow macromolecular drugs to pass through without damaging blood vessels or brain And to get the device approved for use in humans, it will take longer to test on animals larger than rats Reference: [1] biodegradable nanofiber based piezoelectric transducer [2] buzzing through the blood brain barrier
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