New Device Delivers Drugs to Brain Remotely

A new technology, recently demonstrated for the first time in mice, may one day be used to treat pain, depression, epilepsy and other neurological disorders in people by targeting therapies to specific brain circuits via remote control. According to scientists from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the research is a major step forward in pharmacology and builds on previous work in the field of optogenetics — a technology that can alter individual brain cells to be more sensitive to light and then can activate the targeted population of cells with flashes of light. The researchers from this study created wireless devices capable of delivering drugs directly into the brain with the remote push of a button. “With one of these tiny devices implanted, we could theoretically 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,” said a co-principal investigator of the study. The new devices, built with four chambers to carry drugs directly into the brain allows scientists to get an unprecedented look at the inner workings of the brain. To read more about this study, click here.