Can be remotely activated and later reabsorbed in the body

Nov 25, 2014 10:04 GMT  ·  By

Perfect health is a myth that no one really achieves, since there's always some kind of pathogen or microbe being suppressed or eradicated inside the human body. Still, optimum health is common enough, and very actively preserved by man, for the most part.

Our ability to recover from injuries and sicknesses isn't anywhere close to the kind depicted in fantasy and science fiction media though.

It can take days just for a small cut to disappear, instead of moments, and broken bones need weeks to set and fuse, and they often fail to regain initial strength.

There is no way to speed up general recovery time in those situations, although stem cell research and 3D bioprinting is working on it.

However, diseases are a different matter. Since they are caused by microscopic elements, the symptoms usually disappear the moment they do, or close enough.

Researchers at Tufts University, in collaboration with a team at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, have created an electronic implant that can eliminate bacterial infections.

The remote-controlled implant

A device made from silk and magnesium, the implant has to be injected inside the body of a person and be remotely-activated, at which point it dissolves.

Tests on mice have shown that E. coli and S. aureus bacteria were successfully eradicated in around 20 minutes, with no resurgence seen after 24 hours.

The device is composed of a serpentine resistor and a power-receiving coil made of magnesium deposited onto a silk protein layer.

In layman’s terms, the magnesium heater was encased in a silk “pocket” that protected the electronics and controlled the time it took to dissolve.

Once implanted in vivo in S. aureus-infected tissue, a remote command was sent to activate two devices that would carry out two sets of 10-minute heat treatments.

The dissolution happened in minutes, but different silk outer layers can extend the period to entire weeks, though that was unnecessary for the purposes of the experiments.

Normal implants are non-degradable and must either be removed or replaced, but the new ones dissipate in the body on their own quite quickly after they do their job.

The bottom line

There is now an implant that can quickly eliminate bacterial infection and later be resorbed in the body all on its own. No word on human trials, but with preliminary lab tests successful, it shouldn't take too many years.

"This is an important demonstration step forward for the development of on-demand medical devices that can be turned on remotely to perform a therapeutic function in a patient and then safely disappear after their use, requiring no retrieval," said senior author Fiorenzo Omenetto, professor of biomedical engineering and Frank C. Doble professor at Tufts School of Engineering. "These wireless strategies could help manage post-surgical infection, for example, or pave the way for eventual 'wi-fi' drug delivery."

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Electronic resorbable implant created (5 Images)

The bacteria-slaying implant
Blood afflicted with Staphylococcus aureusEscherichia Coli binary fission
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