Newswise — Neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy have had some treatment success using deep brain stimulation devices, but those require invasive and expensive surgical implantation. Now engineers funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) have devised a system to control motor activity in the brain without surgical device implantation, a first step toward non-invasive cell-specific brain stimulation therapies.

The research team, led by Hong Chen, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering andradiation oncology in the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis have combined sound, heat, and genetics to create a non-invasive system able to stimulate specific cell types deep inside the brain.

They have named the approach sonothermogenetics.

“Sono” refers to the ultrasound part of the technology. It takes advantage of the ability of focused ultrasound to penetrate deep into the brain, but have an affect only on a small area of brain cells being targeted. “Thermo” refers to a tiny amount of heat that is created when the ultrasound hits its target. “Genetics” refers to the fact that the team uses genes that encode proteins that can be turned on and off by the small amount of heat generated by the focused ultrasound. 

“This engineering approach could help address the public health problem created by the growing number of individuals affected by neurological disorders worldwide by offering non-invasive treatment alternatives to patients,” said Randy King, PhD, director of the NIBIB program in Interventional Ultrasound.

 

Journal Link: Brain Stimulation, Jul-Aug-2021