14 DAY TRIAL // In a paper published earlier this week in the journal Science Advances, a team of researchers in Sweden describe a novel implant that they developed and that is designed to deliver various drugs to very specific areas of the body.
The Linköping University scientists imagine this implant being used to treats pain resulting from nerve damage by carrying medicine straight to the problem area.
For instance, the device could treat crippling pain in the lower back that is the result of neither muscle nor bone injury, but of the compression of nerve bundles in this part of the body, the team write in their Science Advances report.
In a series of experiments, the researchers damaged the sciatic nerve of several rats, which runs from the lower back all the way down the limb. They then tried to treat the rodents by fitting them with implantable devices.
The implants, essentially small tubes packing a reservoir for the medication, successfully delivered the compound they were entrusted with to the suffering sciatic nerve, Live Science informs.
As a result, the rats experienced less pain when the researchers picked them up and started pressing on their paws. The implants themselves did not cause the animals to experience any health complications having to do with rejection.
Why use implants to treat pain?
Writing in the journal Science Advances, the Linköping University team explain that damage to the nerves in the body can sometimes translate into debilitating pain.
True, regular drugs can help, but the problem is that, to actually have an effect, they must be taken in high doses. This is because orally administered drugs spread all throughout the body rather than target only the problem area.
The specialists believe that, because they are engineered to deliver medication straight to the body area that is in pain, their implants are the better alternative.
Before they can make their devices commercially available, the researchers must prove that they can be as effective in humans as in rats, and that they can survive in the body and not cause problems for extended periods of time.
