Researchers from Linköping University and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have invented a bioelectronics device that delivers therapeutic drugs to the nervous system in rats with unprecedented precision.

The electronic drug delivery device is implanted onto the rat’s spinal cord where it carries out highly localised and controlled drug delivery, biosensing (to monitor the impact) and neural stimulation. Using the device, neurotransmitter drug molecules were pumped to specific malfunctioning neural junctions on the spinal cord via gel electrophoresis. At the target, the drug inhibits the central nervous system and thus can reduce pain sensation. The bioelectronics implant means that the drug dosage is low and extremely precise and therefore there were no observable side effects, according to the study. Accuracy can be controlled down to the number of molecules of drug administered and drug diffusion ceases as soon as the device’s electric voltage is turned off.

“To the best or our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of drug delivery with a bioelectronic device in such a selective way,” says Daniel T. Simon, an assistant professor at Linköping University in Sweden, and a researcher on the project. “There has been electrophoretic delivery of drugs done. But there hasn’t been this type of precision and local delivery.”

Image Caption: Managing our nerves

Image Credit: Charis Tsevis for Harrison & Star / Flickr