The medical world changes rapidly and constantly and the way that medication is delivered to patients’ is one of those ways. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in Missouri have developed a wireless device that is the width of a human hair. This device, they say, can be implanted into a patient’s brain and deliver drugs by remote control.
The way the device works is by stimulating individual brain cells with flashes of light. Physicians could then deliver drugs directly into the brain using remote control. In the future it’s believed that manufacturers could develop medications that would be activated by the light and then delivered to the patient through the implant. In theory, the researchers explained they could “deliver a drug to a specific brain region and activate that drug with light as needed. This approach potentially could deliver therapies that are much more targeted but have fewer side effects.”
Prior attempts to deliver medications this way meant that the patient was restricted because of pumps and tubes that were hooked up to it. The technology has been tested in mice and was used to treat pain. In the future it’s believed the wireless device could treat patients suffering pain, depression, epilepsy or other neurological disorders and the medication would provide therapies targeted to specific regions of the brain.
The way it would eventually work is that the device would be embedded into micro-fluid channels in the brain; they are soft and can remain in the brain for long periods with no risk of neural damage or inflammation. The current prototypes contain four chambers for medications that could be remotely delivered.
Universe Kogaku designs and manufactures optical lenses for medical, industrial, high tech and electronic applications.