When it comes to 3D printing, the sky is the limit. As 3D printing technology continues to advance, applications can be as far reaching as airplane and automobile parts to medical devices and even anatomically correct, biocompatible models. Although 3D printing technology is developing at a rapid pace, the technology itself is not new. It emerged in the 1980s as a means of creating rapid prototypes. In recent years the applications for 3D printed models have evolved with the available hardware, software, and printable materials. Evolving technology, paired with the creative and innovative minds of scientists, engineers, and physicians, has been the launching pad for developments within 3D printing technology specific to healthcare. One way 3D printing technology is poised to create better patient outcomes is in creating an anatomically and patient-specific models to aid in surgery and medical procedures. With the capability to 3D ...
Stanford University researchers have introduced an injectable hydrogel that releases drugs from polypyrrole nanoparticle when a weak electric field is applied outside the body.
This new kind of precise drug delivery system could help patients who are dealing with complicated drug regimens for such diseases as cancer. Targeting the therapy directly to the appropriate body part can help limit the side effects of the drug.
Electronic chips and other materials can deliver drugs with triggers such as laser pulses, ultrasound, or magnetic fields. But chips require surgical implantation, and generating those signals requires sophisticated instrumentation.
Katherine Bourzac reports for Chemical & Engineering News:
[Chemistry professor Richard] group aimed for simplicity. They load drugs into smart materials based on conductive-polymer nanoparticles. When they apply a weak electric field, the charge of the polymer nanoparticles changes and they release their drugs. In the clinic, a doctor could create such a field using an AA battery. Zare and his team suspend these nanoparticles in a temperature-sensitive gel. It’s liquid at room temperature, so the researchers can inject the nanoparticles into tissues, but it turns into a gel at body temperature to hold the drug-loaded nanoparticles in place.
Robert langer, a biomedical engineer at MIT, praised the simplicity of the system to Bourzac, citing that it exhibited control similar to much more complex setups.
Bourzac writes that Zare’s group used an in vitro model to demonstrate how “they could control the dosage and time the drug release by varying the strength and duration of the external field.” The researchers used in vivo models to show that the gel degrades within two months after injection without any ill effects to the mice. The group is now working with the drug company Sanofi to refine dosage control with animal studies.
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