The biological safety of nanotechnology, how the body reacts to nanoparticles, is a hot topic; researchers at Lund University have managed for the first time to carry out successful experiments involving the injection of so-called 'nanowires'
The biological safety of nanotechnology, in other words, how the body reacts to nanoparticles, is a hot topic. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have managed for the first time to carry out successful experiments involving the injection of so-called 'nanowires.'
In the future it is expected that it will be possible to insert nanoscale electrodes to study learning and memory functions and to treat patients suffering from chronic pain, depression, and diseases such as Parkinson's. But it is not known what would happen if the nanoelectrodes would break away from their contact points.
Scientists at Lund University have investigated this 'worst case by injecting nanowires in rat brains. The nanowires resemble in size and shape the registration nodes of electrodes of the future. The results show that the brain 'clean-up cells' (microglia), take care of the wires. After twelve weeks only minor differences were observed between the brains of the test group and the control group. The findings are published in Nano Letters.
"The results indicate that this is a feasible avenue to pursue in the future. Now we have a better base on which to develop more advanced and more useful electrodes than those we have today," explains Christelle Prinz, a scientist in Solid State Physics at the Faculty of Engineering (LTH), who, together with Cecilia Eriksson Linsmeier at the Faculty of Medicine, is the lead author of the article 'Nanowire biocompatibility in the brain - Looking for a needle in a 3D stack.'
Electrodes are already used today to counteract symptoms of Parkinson's disease, for instance. Future nanotechnology may enable refined and enhanced treatment and pave the way for entirely new applications.
One advantage of nanoscale electrodes is that they can register and stimulate the tiniest components of the brain. To study the biological safety - the biocompatibility - of these electrodes, the scientists first produced nanowires that were then mixed into a fluid that was injected into the rat brains. An equal number of rats were given the solution without the nanowires. After 1, 6, and 12 weeks, respectively, the researchers looked at how the rat brains were reacting to the nanowires.