Brain Implant for Parkinson’s Disease Patients Approved by FDA - http://clapway.com/2015/06/13/brain-implant-for-parkinsons-disease-patients-approved-by-fda-456/

Yesterday, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a brain implant that helps fight Parkinson’s Disease and essential tremor. The device is called the Brio Neurostimulation System, and has been described by the FDA as “an implantable deep brain stimulation device” that’s there to “help reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor, a movement disorder that is one of the most common causes of tremors” in a recent press release. Over fifty thousand Americans are diagnosed annually with Parkinson’s, and millions over the age of 40 suffer from essential tremor.

 

 

Parkinson’s still uncured, but now easier to live with.

Managing Parkinson’s Disease symptoms is now easier thanks to the system, and users should see an improvement in symptom manifestation. The brain stimulation device is made up of a small rechargeable battery, a pulse generator, and wire leads going from the pulse generator to brain locations that depend on the illness at hand. Those who have received training in operation of the Brio Neurostimulation System can adjust the device for different effects as needed.

 

FDA approved brain implant based on results of two clinical trials.

Two trials were essential for the approval of the device by the FDA. One lasted for three months and had a sample size of 136 patients, while the other lasted six months and has 127 patients. The first group consisted of Parkinson’s patients, while the second was made up of people suffering from essential tremor. Both groups statistically showed significant improvement in effectiveness of action when the device was turned on versus when it was turned off.

 

Brain implant is not without its risks, though.

The Brio Neurostimulation System has its share of side effects, some quite nasty. The major one is intercranial bleeding, which can lead to stroke paralysis, or death according to the FDA. There was actually a device with a similar goal on the market, Medtronic’s Activa Deep Brain Stimulation Therapy System, which was approved in 1997 for treatment of tremors associated with essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. That device was also a brain implant, and the FDA widened the system’s indications in 2002 to include the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

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Brain Implant for Parkinson’s Disease Patients Approved by FDA

Think cranial injection rather than cranial surgical implant. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/09/u-s-what-mesh-nanotechnology-can-do-for-the-brain-123/

There might actually be a tiny–or nano, rather–electronic device that can be injected directly into your brain or other parts of the body.

Why a nano electronic injectable?

Injecting nano electronics into your body might be newest in beneficial scientific procedures. Imagine that instead of a vaccination, the syringe gives you a shot of electronics instead. The brain has been implanted with electronics in the past because deep brain stimulation has been used to treat a range of brain disorders for decades.

Featured in Nature Nanotechnology, a Harvard research group wants to introduce to the world a thin mesh that is able to track brain activity. Charles Lieber’s Lab designed this little device to treat everything from neurodegenerative disorders to paralysis to Parkinson’s. T Lieber, the Mark Hymer Jr. Professor of Chemistry and an international team of researchers are responsible for developing this method of fabricating nanoscale electronic scaffolds that can be injected via syringe.

Cranial Injection Rather Than Cranial Surgical Implant

Lieber holds, “if you want to study the brain or develop the tools to explore the brain-machine interface, you need to stick something into the body.” It is said to be less invasive than implants. Think cranial injection rather than cranial surgical implant.

Injectable electronics feel like it is not there at all. It is way less crude and way, way more flexible thanks to its polymer thread material.

It can be stuck onto both the organs of both humans and animal. One could think of them as electronic tattoos as they can help track your heart and breathing. Now, it is just being stuck onto skin. Later, however, the need to move toward implants might lead to some issues.

Nanotechnology Scaffolding for The Brain

Luckily, the mesh that was created out of thin polymer and metal threads has the ability to do the job electrodes do– only it integrates into the brain, like a scaffolding cells can attach themselves to. This thread structure actually does well to create a solid connection that enables tracking and stimulating specific neurons. This enables precise measurements over specific regions of the brains. Needless to say, also an enabler of profound discovery in the world of neuroscience.

The mesh can also be rolled into smaller widths even giving it the flexibility to be loaded into a 100-micrometer glass needle. Once the mesh is infected into a part of the brain, it can unroll itself and settle into the area of the brain it sits upon. In order to test this, researchers tried this theory on synthetic gel. They were able to demonstrate that it would unroll and settle into the brain-like structure used for the experiment.

Next, the injected the mesh onto live lab mice. In the mice, the mesh had spread out when they were checked five weeks after the injection. The neuroimaging came up with healthy neurons surrounding the mice participant’s brains. It was also shown that researchers would be able to map brain activity when connecting to a set of these tiny wires.

Nanotechnology and The Brain

The team aims to build greater scaffolding in the form of larger meshes with various sensor types. They plan to inject that mesh into newborn mice to monitor how it unrolled as they grew so they can better understand how the body reacts to these electronic injectables. The journal Nature also reports on a wireless interface in the works. Most will be interested to know that human tests are still a long, way away. Still, this research takes a step in helping us put together pieces of the puzzle of the unfathomably mysterious brain.

Are you able to trick the brain into waking up?:

U.S.: What a Mesh Nanotechnology Can Do for The Brain