An improved method of electrotherapy may help treat conditions as varied as Parkinson’s disease, heart rhythm disorders, cancer and nerve injuries, developers say.
In Nature Communications, Professor Roger Olsson at Lund University, Sweden, and colleagues state: “Bioelectronics have the potential to supplement pharmaceuticals in non-chronic treatments, eg immunotherapy, pain, and cancer.”
They explain that conventional drugs typically address biochemical processes, whereas bioelectronics tackle the dysfunction of bioelectric circuits.
Their work focuses on “bioresorbable” bioelectronics, which avoid the need for removal surgery after insertion – especially important when used for brain tumours.
It builds on previous designs for electrodes that connect to the nervous system using conducting polymers which are formed once in place.
They developed temporary, organic electrodes that were shown in tests on zebrafish to be successfully implanted without surgery and seamlessly integrated into biological systems.
“Self-organising substrate-free organic electrodes can integrate seamlessly into dynamic biological systems in ways difficult for classical rigid solid-state electronics, “they write.
Their new method “sets off a controlled cellular response in the brain when relaying external stimuli and the biocompatible materials show no tissue damage after bioresorption”.
“These findings encourage further investigation of temporary organic bioelectronics for nonchronic treatments assembled in vivo,” they conclude.
Professor Olsson says: ”We have developed a technique where a solution of nanoparticles is injected into the tissue using a needle the size of human hair. These particles, composed of small molecular chains (polymers), then self-organise into a conducting structure and integrate with the body’s cells.”
Hjort, M. et al. In situ assembly of bioresorbable organic bioelectronics in the brain. Nature Communications 24 July 2023; doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40175-3
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