WebZine
2019. 12
What's New
Artificial Neurons on a Chip Developed to Treat Chronic Diseases
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
This is one of the artificial neurons in its protective casing on a fingertip.
[University of Bath]
An international team of scientists has developed artificial neurons on silicon chips that behave just like neurons in the body. The first-of-its-kind achievement could lead to the development of medical devices for treating chronic diseases, such as heart failure, Alzheimer’s disease, or other neurodegenerative disorders. Critically, the artificial neurons not only behave just like biological neurons, but require just one-billionth the power of a microprocessor, making them ideally suited for use in medical implants and other bio-electronic devices.
“Until now neurons have been like black boxes, but we have managed to open the black box and peer inside,” stated research lead Alain Nogaret, PhD, professor from the University of Bath department of physics. “Our work is paradigm-changing because it provides a robust method to reproduce the electrical properties of real neurons in minute detail. But it’s wider than that because our neurons only need 140 nanoWatts of power. That’s a billionth of the power requirement of a microprocessor, which other attempts to make synthetic neurons have used. This makes the neurons well suited for bio-electronic implants to treat chronic diseases.”
The researchers, led by the University of Bath team, and including collaborators at the Universities of Bristol, Zurich, and Auckland, describe the artificial neurons in a study published in Nature Communications, titled, “Optimal solid-state neurons.”
Designing artificial neurons that respond to electrical signals from the nervous system in the same way that real neurons would has been a major goal in medicine for decades, as it would open up the possibility of curing conditions in which neurons don’t work properly, have had their processes severed, as in spinal cord injury, or have died. Artificial neurons could repair diseased biocircuits by replicating their healthy function and responding adequately to biological feedback to restore body functions.
Focused ultrasound may open door to Alzheimer's treatment
RADIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA
by Linda Brooks
Figure 1. MRI and fused CT image shows three target sites selected in the brain within the hippocampus, a structure critical for memory and affected in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
CHICAGO — Focused ultrasound is a safe and effective way to target and open areas of the blood-brain barrier, potentially allowing for new treatment approaches to Alzheimer's disease, according to initial study results presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
There currently is no effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease, the most common cause of dementia. The blood-brain barrier, a network of blood vessels and tissues that keeps foreign substances from entering the brain, presents a challenge to scientists researching treatments, as it also blocks potentially therapeutic medications from reaching targets inside the brain.
Studies on animals have shown that pulses of low-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) delivered under MRI guidance can reversibly open this barrier and allow for targeted drug and stem-cell delivery.
Researchers at three sites have been studying LIFU in humans for more than a year in a clinical trial led by Ali Rezai, M.D., director of the West Virginia University (WVU) Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in Morgantown, W.Va. For the new study, researchers delivered LIFU to specific sites in the brain critical to memory in three women, ages 61, 72 and 73, with early-stage Alzheimer's disease and evidence of amyloid plaques—abnormal clumps of protein in the brain that are linked with Alzheimer's disease. The patients received three successive treatments at two-week intervals. Researchers tracked them for bleeding, infection and edema, or fluid buildup.