New robotic device to help patients with spinal cord injury

Researchers from Columbia University in the US have invented a robotic device that can be used to assist and train people with Spinal Cord Injuries (SCIs). The team consisting of an Indian, said the device delivers forces on the torso when the user performs upper body movements beyond the postural stability limits while sitting.The device can help the patient to sit more stably, an advance which may aid the recovery of patients with SCI.

The robotic device— the Trunk-Support Trainer, or TruST—is a motorised-cable driven belt placed on the torso of people with SCI to determine their control limits of posture, and workspace area while sitting.

The study, published on Monday in the journal Spinal Cord Series and Cases, is the first to measure and define the sitting workspace of patients with SCI based on their active trunk control.

"We designed TruST for people with SCIs who are typically wheelchair users," said study co-author Sunil Agrawal from Columbia University.

"We found that TruST not only prevents patients from falling, but also maximizes trunk movements beyond patients' postural control, or balance limits," he added.

Five subjects participated in a pilot study examining TruST with the Postural Star-Sitting Test.

In this customised postural test, the participants were required to follow a ball with their head and move their trunk as far as possible, without using their hands.

The users repeated the test in eight directions, following which the researchers used the results to compute the sitting workspace of each individual.

TruST was customised for each subject, the researchers said, so that they could apply personalised assistive force fields on the torso while the participants performed the same movements again.

With the new robotic device, the subjects could reach further during the trunk excursions in all eight directions.

According to the study, TruST significantly expanded the sitting workspace around their bodies, on an average of about 25 per cent more.

"The capacity of TruST to deliver continuous force-feedback personalised for the user's postural limits opens new frontiers to implement motor learning-based paradigms to retrain functional sitting in people with SCI. We think TruST is a very promising SCI rehab tool," said study co-author Victor Santamaria, a physical therapist at Columbia University.

Agrawal and his team are now exploring the use of TruST to improve the trunk control of adults and children with SCI.

"The robotic platform will be used to train participants with SCI by challenging them to move their trunk over a larger workspace, with TruST providing assist-as-needed force fields to safely bring the subjects back to their neutral sitting posture. This force field will be adjusted to the needs of the participants over time as they improve their workspace and posture control," Agrawal said. 

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Researchers discover new methid to reduce chemo doses for patients

Chemotherapy, which is a saviour for many cancer patients, is a painful treatment to undergo following which many patients quit it midways.

But researchers, have developed a method that delivers chemotherapy drugs directly to malignant cells and bypasses healthy ones. With this discovery, doctors aim to reduce chemo doses for patients, thereby reducing the unpleasantness side-effects associated with the treatment.

Most anti-cancer treatment are not sufficiently specific, meaning they attack healthy cells together with the malignant ones they're trying to get rid of, explained a Prof.

This leads to the many serious side-effects associated with chemotherapy. Eliminating cancerous cells while leaving healthy one alone is an important step towards reducing patients'  suffering, the Prof. added.

The study focused on the selective expression of the TRPV2 protein by cancer cells. When activated, TRPV2 protein opens a canal inside cell membranes.

Researchers studied liver cancer cells and were able to successfully insert a low dose of doxorubicin, a chemotherapeutic agent, through the canal directly into cancer cells.

Not only did the new method target cancer cells without harming healthy ones. In the future, the precision of this delivery method may allow doctors to prescribe lower chemo doses and to relieve patients from some of the harsher effects of chemo.

It's too early to make concrete predictions but we are hopeful this discovery will lead the way towards a new, more targeted delivery method for chemotherapy treatment, one that will drastically reduce patients' pain, the Prof. concluded.

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Virus-inspired method to deliver drugs to brain

In a first, researchers have engineered small particles, similar to the size of viruses, to cross the protective border separating the circulating blood from the brain, an advance that may pave the way for improved drug delivery to the organ.

The study, noted that the new method allowed for combination drug delivery, through intravenous injections to cross the blood-brain-barrier(BBB).

The researchers, synthesised and modified components from a virus that targets the brain- a bacteriophage fd-- to deliver drugs across the BBB.

When the " small, hairy particle" that they developed was injected into mice, the system crossed the BB and targeted the brain, reaching neurons and other special brain cells, the study noted.

According to the researchers, most drugs are excluded from the brain by the protective blood-brain-barrier and current treatment options aimed at crossing this barrier were risky.

Crossing the BB has hindered the industry from effectively addressing central nervous system diseases, including brain tumours and many neurological diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's, said the lead author of the study.

However, he added that some viruses have found ways to bypass the BB and enter the brain.

" We are very excited by our research-- our delivery system is versatile and  amenable to modifications, so, in principle, we can hopefully address shortfalls in drug delivery to the brain through intravenous injection, said the author.

The new delivery system, based on more than a decade of research, has significant implications for developing drugs that can cross the BB, and other biological barriers, the researchers said.

The researchers said that the method may open up several opportunities to address neuro-degenerative diseases with modern therapeutics.

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Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/virus-inspired-method-to-deliver-drugs-to-brain-study-767866.html

New skin patch could deliver cancer medication without pain in one minute

Researchers have developed a new skin patch that could efficiently deliver medication to attack melanoma cancer cells.

The study is an advance toward developing a vaccine to treat melanoma.

Our patch has a unique chemical coating and mode of action that allows it to be aplied and removed from the skin in just a minute while still delivering a therapeutic dose of durgs, said one of the researcher.

Researchers have designed a new pH-responsive polymer with 2 parts.

The first part containes amine groups that are positively charged at the pH at which they make the microneedles, but that becomes neutral at the pH of the skin, the researcher explained.

The second part contains carboxylic acid groups with no charge when the microneedles are made, but which become negatively charged when the patch is applied to the skin. 

So, there is an overall change in charge from positive to negative, he said.

While sticky negative-positive -negative layers are still required for layer-by-layer (LbL) film construction, the team's patch quickly switches to repelling negative-negative-negative layers when placed on the skin. After the microneedles pierce the skin and implant the LBL drug film beneath the skin, the drug leaves the patch quickly.

Using chicken ovalbumin as a model antigen, the team vaccinated mice with their patches and compared the results with intramuscular and subcutaneous injections.

The microneedle treatment produced nine times the antibody level as compared to intramuscular injections ( e.g. used for flu shots) and 160 times the antibody level compared to subcutaneous injections ( e.g., used for measles vaccines). They also saw efficient immune activation in surgical samples of human skin.

Our patch technology could be used to deliver vaccines to combat different infectious diseases, he said. But, we're excited by the possibility that the patch is another tool in the oncologists' arsenal against cancer, specifically melanoma, he continued.

To make melanoma vaccine, the researchers developed an antigen that includes a marker frequently over-expressed by melanoma cells, as well as an adjuvant, which creates ageneralised danger signal for the immune system and boosts its response. Then, they tested different LbL microneedle film arrangements of antigen and adjuvant in immune cells derived from mice.

From these experiments, the researchers identified the optimal LbL microneedle structure that appears to activate immune cells directly accessible in the skin. In living mice, these cells could, in turn, migrate to the lymphatic system and recruit other immune cells to attack the melanoma tumour. The researchers now plan to test patches on melanoma tumours in mice.

We're using low-cost chemistry and a simple fabrication scheme to transform vaccination, he said. Ultimately, we want to get a device approved and on the market, he added.

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Bluetooth-enabled medical implant may help manage chronic disease

Scientists have developed a grape-sized, Bluetooth implant that can be remotely controlled to deliver scheduled doses of medication.

The research paves the way for people with chronic diseases like arthritis, diabetes and heart disease to one day forego the daily regimen of pills.

Researchers  successfully delivered continuous, predetermined dosages of medications using a nanochannel delivery system (nDS) that they remotely controlled using Bluetooth technology. 

The nDS device provides controlled release of drugs without the use of pumps, valves or a power supply for possibly up to year without a refill for some patients. The research will be tested in space next year.

The study shows that the implant can be used for long-term delivery of drugs for rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure.

These medications that are often administered at specific times of the day or at varying dosages based on patient needs, researchers said.

“We see this universal drug implant as part of the future of health care innovation,” said a researcher.

“Some chronic disease drugs have the greatest benefit of delivery during overnight hours when it’s inconvenient for patients to take oral medication,” he said.

“This device could vastly improve their disease management and prevent them from missing doses, simply with a medical professional overseeing their treatment remotely,” he said.

Researchers have worked on implantable nanochannel delivery systems to regulate the delivery of a variety of therapies for medical issues ranging from HIV-prevention to cancer.

As basic research progresses with the remote-controlled device, the Houston Methodist technology is planned for extreme remote communication testing on the International Space Station in 2020.

The team hopes that one day the system will be widely available to clinicians to treat patients remotely via telemedicine.

This could provide both an improvement in the patients’ quality of life and a reduction of cost to the health care system.

The battery-powered implant contains a microchip that is Bluetooth enabled and relies on wireless communication.

To prove the technology worked as planned, the microchip was programmed for three different drug release settings — standard, decreased and increased.

With each setting, a specific voltage was applied to a silicon nanochannel within the implant to control drug release.

Current drug delivery devices, such as pain or insulin implants, rely on pumping mechanisms or external ports and typically need refills every couple of months.

The new device is implanted under the skin and uses a nanofluidic membrane made with similar technology used in the silicon semiconductor industry.

The drug dosage and schedule can be tailored to each patient, and the implant delivers the drugs for many months, even a year, before refills are needed.

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New 'brain pacemaker' may help treat epilepsy, Parkinson's

Scientists have developed a wireless device that can stimulate the brain with electric current, potentially delivering fine-tuned treatments to patients with diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson's. The neurostimulator, named the WAND, works like a "pacemaker for the brain," monitoring the brain's electrical activity and delivering electrical stimulation if it detects something amiss, said researchers.

These devices can be extremely effective at preventing debilitating tremors or seizures in patients with a variety of neurological conditions, according to the study published recently.

However, the electrical signatures that precede a seizure or tremor can be extremely subtle, and the frequency and strength of electrical stimulation required to prevent them is equally touchy. It can take years of small adjustments by doctors before the devices provide optimal treatment.

WAND, which stands for wireless artifact-free neuromodulation device, is both wireless and autonomous, meaning that once it learns to recognise the signs of tremor or seizure, it can adjust the stimulation parameters on its own to prevent the unwanted movements.

Since it is closed-loop -- meaning it can stimulate and record simultaneously -- the device can adjust these parameters in real-time.

"The process of finding the right therapy for a patient is extremely costly and can take years," said an assistant professor.

"Significant reduction in both cost and duration can potentially lead to greatly improved outcomes and accessibility," he said.

"We want to enable the device to figure out what is the best way to stimulate for a given patient to give the best outcomes. And you can only do that by listening and recording the neural signatures," he said.

WAND can record electrical activity over 128 channels, or from 128 points in the brain, compared to eight channels in other closed-loop systems. To demonstrate the device, the team used WAND to recognise and delay specific arm movements in rhesus macaques.

Simultaneously stimulating and recording electrical signals in the brain is much like trying to see small ripples in a pond while also splashing your feet -- the electrical signals from the brain are overwhelmed by the large pulses of electricity delivered by the stimulation.

Currently, deep brain stimulators either stop recording while delivering the electrical stimulation, or record at a different part of the brain from where the stimulation is applied --essentially measuring the small ripples at a different point in the pond from the splashing.


In order to deliver closed-loop stimulation-based therapies, which is a big goal for people treating Parkinson's and epilepsy and a variety of neurological disorders, it is very important to both perform neural recordings and stimulation simultaneously, which currently no single commercial device does, researchers said.

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