Well-aimed shots in sickness

We are looking for an effective cure and vaccine for the coronavirus and its infection. At the moment, we do not have drugs with proven efficacy. However, there is another way to fight diseases, more related to the world of technology than biology and medicine ...

In 1998, i.e. at a time when an American explorer, Kevin Tracy (1), conducted his experiments on rats, no connection was seen between the vagus nerve and the immune system in the body. Such a combination was considered almost impossible.

But Tracy was sure of existence. He connected a hand-held electrical impulse stimulator to the animal's nerve and treated it with repeated "shots". He then gave the rat TNF (tumor necrosis factor), a protein associated with inflammation in both animals and humans. The animal was supposed to become acutely inflamed within an hour, but on examination it was found that TNF was blocked by 75%.

It turned out that the nervous system acted as a computer terminal, with which you can either prevent infection before it begins, or stop its development.

Correctly programmed electrical impulses that affect the nervous system can replace the effects of expensive drugs that are not indifferent to the health of the patient.

Body remote control

This discovery opened a new branch called bioelectronics, which is looking for more and more miniature technical solutions for stimulating the body in order to evoke carefully planned responses. The technique is still in its infancy. In addition, there are serious concerns about the safety of electronic circuits. However, compared to pharmaceuticals, it has huge advantages.

In May 2014, Tracy told the New York Times that bioelectronic technologies can successfully replace the pharmaceutical industry and repeated it often in recent years.

The company he founded, SetPoint Medical (2), first applied the new therapy to a group of twelve volunteers from Bosnia and Herzegovina two years ago. Tiny vagus nerve stimulators that emit electrical signals have been implanted in their necks. In eight people, the test was successful - acute pain subsided, the level of pro-inflammatory proteins returned to normal, and, most importantly, the new method did not cause serious side effects. It reduced the level of TNF by about 80%, without completely eliminating it, as is the case with pharmacotherapy.

2. Bioelectronic chip SetPoint Medical

After years of laboratory research, in 2011, SetPoint Medical, invested in by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, began clinical trials of nerve-stimulating implants to fight disease. Two-thirds of the patients in the study who had implants longer than 19 cm in the neck connected to the vagus nerve experienced improvement, reduced pain and swelling. Scientists say this is just the beginning, and they have plans to treat them by electrical stimulation of other diseases such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, infertility, obesity and even cancer. Of course, also infections such as COVID-XNUMX.

As a concept, bioelectronics is simple. In short, it transmits signals to the nervous system that tell the body to recover.

However, as always, the problem lies in the details, such as the correct interpretation and translation of the electrical language of the nervous system. Security is another issue. After all, we are talking about electronic devices connected wirelessly to a network (3), which means -.

As he speaks Anand Ragunatan, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, bioelectronics "gives me remote control of someone's body." This is also a serious test. miniaturization, including methods for efficiently connecting to networks of neurons that would allow obtaining appropriate amounts of data.

Source 3Brain implants that communicate wirelessly

Bioelectronics should not be confused with biocybernetics (that is, biological cybernetics), nor with bionics (which arose from biocybernetics). These are separate scientific disciplines. Their common denominator is the reference to biological and technical knowledge.

Controversy about good optically activated viruses

Today, scientists are creating implants that can communicate directly with the nervous system in an attempt to combat various health problems, from cancer to the common cold.

If researchers were successful and bioelectronics became widespread, millions of people could one day be able to walk with computers connected to their nervous systems.

In the realm of dreams, but not entirely unrealistic, there are, for example, early warning systems that, using electrical signals, instantly detect the “visit” of such a coronavirus in the body and direct weapons (pharmacological or even nanoelectronic) at it. aggressor until it attacks the entire system.

Researchers are struggling to find a method that will understand signals from hundreds of thousands of neurons at the same time. Accurate registration and analysis essential for bioelectronicsso that scientists can identify inconsistencies between basic neural signals in healthy people and signals produced by a person with a particular disease.

The traditional approach to recording neural signals is to use tiny probes with electrodes inside, called. A prostate cancer researcher, for example, can attach clamps to a nerve associated with the prostate in a healthy mouse and record the activity. The same could be done with a creature whose prostate has been genetically modified to produce malignant tumors. Comparing the raw data of both methods will allow us to determine how different the nerve signals are in mice with cancer. Based on such data, a corrective signal could in turn be programmed into a bioelectronic device for cancer treatment.

But they have disadvantages. They can only select one cell at a time, so they don't collect enough data to see the big picture. As he speaks Adam E. Cohen, professor of chemistry and physics at Harvard, "it's like trying to see opera through a straw."

Cohen, an expert in a growing field called optogenetics, believes it can overcome the limitations of external patches. His research attempts to use optogenetics to decipher the neural language of disease. The problem is that neural activity does not come from the voices of individual neurons, but from a whole orchestra of them acting in relation to each other. Viewing one by one does not give you a holistic view.

Optogenetics began in the 90s when scientists knew that proteins called opsins in bacteria and algae generate electricity when exposed to light. Optogenetics uses this mechanism.

The opsin genes are inserted into the DNA of a harmless virus, which is then injected into the subject's brain or peripheral nerve. By changing the genetic sequence of the virus, the researchers target specific neurons, such as those responsible for feeling cold or pain, or areas of the brain known to be responsible for certain actions or behaviors.

Then, an optical fiber is inserted through the skin or skull, which transmits light from its tip to the place where the virus is located. The light from the optical fiber activates the opsin, which in turn conducts an electrical charge that causes the neuron to "light up" (4). Thus, scientists can control the reactions of the body of mice, causing sleep and aggression on command.

4. Neuron controlled by light

But before using opsins and optogenetics to activate neurons involved in certain diseases, scientists need to determine not only which neurons are responsible for the disease, but also how the disease interacts with the nervous system.

Like computers, neurons talk binary language, with a dictionary based on whether their signal is on or off. The order, time intervals and intensity of these changes determine the way information is transmitted. However, if a disease can be considered to speak its own language, an interpreter is needed.

Cohen and his colleagues felt that optogenetics could handle it. So they developed the process in reverse - instead of using light to activate neurons, they use light to record their activity.

Opsins could be a way to treat all sorts of diseases, but scientists will likely need to develop bioelectronic devices that don't use them. The use of genetically modified viruses will become unacceptable to the authorities and society. In addition, the opsin method is based on gene therapy, which has not yet achieved convincing success in clinical trials, is very expensive and appears to carry serious health risks.

Cohen mentions two alternatives. One of them is associated with molecules that behave like opsins. The second uses RNA to be converted into an opsin-like protein because it doesn't change DNA, so there are no gene therapy risks. Yet the main problem providing light in the area. There are designs for brain implants with a built-in laser, but Cohen, for example, considers it more appropriate to use external light sources.

In the long term, bioelectronics (5) promises a comprehensive solution to all the health problems that humanity faces. This is a very experimental area at the moment.

However, it is undeniably very interesting.