According to the American Cancer Society, over 24,000 Americans are diagnosed with cancer of the brain each year, and more than 18,000 will pass away from it in the US in 2023. But, according to new research, Brain cancer treatments may be enhanced by developing a novel, biodegradable ultrasound far more potent than existing devices. This study was published in Science Advances journal.
When a cancerous brain tumor is discovered, it is often surgically removed, and the cancer cells that are still present are usually destroyed with chemotherapy. However, the lining of the blood vessels blocks the passage of giant chemicals that can affect the brain, making brain tumors extremely resistant to chemotherapy.
Additionally, they stop effective medicines like chemotherapy from eliminating cancerous brain cells and curing other brain illnesses. By using ultrasound to move cells just enough to create pores big enough for the medication to flow through, it is possible to cross the blood-brain barrier safely and successfully.
However, it is challenging to pass ultrasound via the thick skull. After receiving chemotherapy in the hospital, many robust ultrasound devices must typically be positioned appropriately all over the skull and meticulously focused on the tumor’s location with an MRI scanner.
The procedure lasts five to six hours, and an intense ultrasound can harm tissue. Even though most individuals with advanced brain tumors undergo chemotherapy for months, it is rarely administered more than once. Using ultrasound each time the individual received treatment would be far more efficient. However, it is hardly used because the MRI-ultrasound procedure is so time-consuming.
The focus of Nguyen’s laboratory is biodegradable piezoelectric polymers. A substance is said to be piezoelectric if it vibrates in response to a slight electrical current. They had previously created a piezoelectric ultrasound brain implant that was secure and biodegradable, but it wasn’t as effective as the typical piezoelectric ceramics.
To create a biodegradable polymer ultrasound that is just as powerful as those made of ceramics, the Nguyen lab, along with graduate students Thinh T. Le and Meysam Chorsi, who is co-advised by Engineering Professor Horea Ilies and Engineering Dean Kazem Kazerounian, and postdoc Feng Lin, used a brand-new technique.
The group intended to employ glycine crystals since it is common protein found in the human body and because it has just been discovered that it has a strong piezoelectricity. Glycine is extraordinarily safe and biodegradable; it dissolves in water very fast. Handling glycine piezoelectric crystals and creating an effective ultrasonic device is challenging because they are fragile and readily breakable.
The researchers developed a new answer. They created glycine crystals and purposefully broke them up into bits only some hundred nanometers wide. After that, they were electrospun with a biodegradable polymer called polycaprolactone (PCL) to create piezoelectric films made of nanofibers of glycine and PCL.
On mice with cancer of the brain, the researchers checked the apparatus. They gave the mice PTX (paclitaxel), a potent chemotherapy drug that can cure brain tumors but has trouble crossing the blood-brain barrier.
The blood-brain barrier was successfully bypassed by PTX thanks to the glycine-PCL ultrasonography; as a result, the tumors shrunk, and the lifespan of mice with brain cancer was doubled compared to mice that did not get treatment.
