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植入这个离子泵，再也不怕痛
研究人员研发出了一种有机离子晶体管，能够有效阻断疼痛信号达到小鼠的大脑。 瑞典林雪平大学研发出了一种最新的医疗设备，能够在合适的时机发送人体独有的天然疼痛缓解信号。有朝一日能够用于解救慢性疼痛患者。林雪平大学研发的这台用有机电子器件制成的小小的“离子泵”植入病人的体内，在疼痛信号传递到大脑之前，在脊椎进行拦截。
这个小小的离子泵的作用原理就像发送电脉冲矫正心律的心律调节器，离子泵能够发送神经递质，阻止疼痛信号到达大脑。不同之处在于，离子泵发送的并非纯电信号，而且是用生物相容材料制成，发送化学信号，和我们的体内系统整合度更高——你可以理解为是一种化学晶体管。 设备模拟身体的镇痛中枢，干预疼痛信号通过脊柱传递到大脑。研究人员将离子泵植入了具有意识，能够自由活动的小鼠体内。离子泵向四个独立的受损神经和脊柱的交汇区发送缓解疼痛的神经递质GABA。结果离子泵成功阻拦了疼痛信号到达脑部，且没有副作用。 林雪平大学副教授Daniel Simon说设备的独到之处在于使用了有机电子元件，发送的是人类身体独有的化学信号。有机材料很容易就能和身体相容，通过带电离子能够和身体正常沟通。 团队说该设备未来五到十年内该设备能够应用于临床，甚至可以用于向大脑等身体其它部位施加各种物质，可以用于治疗帕金森症或癫痫症。 本次研究的动物试验由瑞典卡罗林斯卡研究院进行严格监管，因为此类医疗成果如果在未来需要进行人体试验的话，那么现阶段一定要进行动物试验。该研究发表在《Science Advances》期刊上。（生物谷Bioon.com） 英文文献 Therapy using implanted organic bioelectronics Many drugs provide their therapeutic action only at specific sites in the body， but are administered in ways that cause the drug’s spread throughout the organism. This can lead to serious side effects. Local delivery from an implanted device may avoid these issues， especially if the delivery rate can be tuned according to the need of the patient. We turned to electronically and ionically conducting polymers to design a device that could be implanted and used for local electrically controlled delivery of therapeutics. The conducting polymers in our device allow electronic pulses to be transduced into biological signals， in the form of ionic and molecular fluxes， which provide a way of interfacing biology with electronics. Devices based on conducting polymers and polyelectrolytes have been demonstrated in controlled substance delivery to neural tissue， biosensing， and neural recording and stimulation. While providing proof of principle of bioelectronic integration， such demonstrations have been performed in vitro or in anesthetized animals. Here， we demonstrate the efficacy of an implantable organic electronic delivery device for the treatment of neuropathic pain in an animal model. Devices were implanted onto the spinal cord of rats， and 2 days after implantation， local delivery of the inhibitory neurotransmitter γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was initiated. Highly localized delivery resulted in a significant decrease in pain response with low dosage and no observable side effects. This demonstration of organic bioelectronics-based therapy in awake animals illustrates a viable alternative to existing pain treatments， paving the way for future implantable bioelectronic therapeutics. |
