About five years ago, this may still sound scientific. But so-called bioelectric medicine has already moved from the realm of ideas to laboratory practice. Today, a team of US researchers has announced that it has reversed a painful and often debilitating disease with this type of technology: the neurovascular bladder. Affected individuals can not control the organ and thus become incontinent or may have the urge to urinate even with some accumulated fluid.
In animal models, neuroscientists and engineers restored bladder function with the aid of a small implantable flexible device detecting abnormal organ activity and, at the Using tiny biointegrated LEDs, urge to urinate All materials are compatible with body tissues and do not experience rejection, said the researchers, who published the findings in the journal Nature. According to Northwestern University engineer John Rogers, it is a miniature bioptic system that, unlike previously tested approaches based on bioelectronic technologies, manages to reach a specific organ – in this case , the bladder – and thus avoiding the side effects.
With 1 cm in diameter, the self-regulating system activates when it detects the need to act – composed of a sensor that monitors the volume of the bladder; a pair of LEDs that send light beams to the bladder, allowing optogenic control; a wireless unit that powers the system; and a data monitor. In the mice that served as a model for the study, seven days after implantation, there were no inflammations or changes in weight and / or movements. which suggests that the body was well tolerated by the body.
The system automatically identifies pathological parents in real time. badociated with the act of urinating. LEDs stimulate, by means of light, specific nerves of the bladder in response to an alteration. In this way, the normal operation of the system is restored. According to the study authors, at least three decades, drugs and electrical stimulation techniques of the tibial nerve, located in the leg, with subcutaneous implants, help to control the activity of the bladder. However, an adverse effect interferes with the normal nerve signaling of other organs.
"Older devices effectively control incontinence and the urge to urinate, but there are unwanted effects because they can not be accurate, looking only at the organ," said Robert W. Gereau, Professor of Anesthesiology at the School of Medicine at the University of Washington, one of the researchers responsible for the study. The developed system now acting directly on the bladder, there is no risk, according to him, that the nerve is stimulated to reach other organs.
Simple surgery
if it was a belt. When the organ fills or empties, the belt expands or contracts. In order for the LED to send the light signal exactly to the nerve to be stimulated, the researchers injected a phosphorescent protein, called opsin, into the bladders of the rats. At the light signal, the substance "lights up", allowing scientists to activate the target nerve cells of the therapy.
The information on the pattern of urine is sent to scientists by Bluetooth, from the system implanted in the device to a portable external device, which uses a simple algorithm to detect if the bladder is full, if it has been emptied and the animal is urinating with an abnormal frequency. "When it emptied its urine several times, the external device also sends a Bluetooth signal that activates the micro-LEDs implanted in the bladder.That shines the sensory neurons, thus restoring the normal functioning of the organ." says Gereau.
Other Applications
The researcher points out that, while encouraging, the approach needs to be tested in larger models and then attest to safety and efficiency. If it works, the technology could be used on other parts of the body with various applications. "He can, for example, treat chronic pain or diabetes by stimulating the secretion of insulin by pancreatic cells," he said. A greater difficulty in carrying out studies in other animals is that it is still not known how to send the phosphorescent protein to the organ. In the case of rats, scientists used a genetically engineered virus to transport the substance. However, the strategy may not be safe for humans, they note.
Although several adjustments are needed before beginning human studies, Northwestern University engineer John Rogers is thrilled with the results. "This example contains key elements of autonomous and implantable systems that can work in synchronization with the body to improve health: a precise biophysical sensor, an IGO activity sensor, a non-invasive way of modulating this activity, algorithms of wireless communication and control and data badysis, "says Rogers, author of the paper.
In an article published in Nature, Ellen T. Roche, a researcher at the Institute of Medical and Scientific Engineering at the Mbadachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), stressed the importance of work. "This study provides an incredible demonstration of how a complete self-regulation system can detect and control the functioning of organs," he wrote. "If the optogenetic approach is approved for specific clinical applications, this type of system can play a vital and transformative role in the treatment of human diseases," he concluded.
