Abstract
Most neurological diseases have no cure today; innovations in neurotechnology are in urgent need. Nanomaterial-based remote neurostimulation with physical fields (NNSPs) is an emerging class of neurotechnologies that has generated tremendous interest in recent years. This perspective focuses on the clinical translation of this new class of neurotechnologies, an issue that so far has not received enough attention. We outline the major barriers in their clinical translation. We highlight our recent efforts to tackle these translational barriers, with a focus on the biological delivery problem. In particular, for the first time, we have shown that it is feasible to use noninvasive brain delivery to generate significant physiological responses in living animals by NNSP. However, much more work is needed to overcome the translational barriers.
Highlights
Nanomaterials hold a paradigm-shifting potential for neurotechnology
In addition to being used as neuroscience tools, it can be envisioned to employ this new class of neurotechnologies for neuromedicine, to tackle neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease (PD), depression, stroke, and epilepsy
In addition to understanding the complex and intricate workings of the brain, a grand challenge is to scitation.org/journal/apb provide real help to patients of neurological diseases, most of which have no cure today
Summary
Nanomaterials hold a paradigm-shifting potential for neurotechnology. Published in 2014 by BRAIN Initiative of the U.S, ‘BRAIN 2025: a Scientific Vision’ viewed the potential of nanomaterials as being “revolutionary,” but only recognized their applications as passive probes for neural activities. The applications of nanomaterials to activate and modulate neural activities were neglected. In 2015, Polina Anikeeva’s research group published the first successful nanomaterialbased remote neurostimulation with physical fields (NNSP) in live animals.. In addition to being used as neuroscience tools, it can be envisioned to employ this new class of neurotechnologies for neuromedicine, to tackle neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease (PD), depression, stroke, and epilepsy For this possibility to become a reality, several formidable hurdles in the clinical translation need to be overcome. There are existing comprehensive reviews on the following topics: (1) various methods of neural stimulation and modulation without the use of nanomaterials, (2) various types of nanomaterials for biomedicine, and (3) various ways of using nanomaterials in neural stimulation and modulation, including but not limited to NNSP.7–9 This perspective will focus on the authors’ viewpoints and the most relevant studies in the literature. Since Anikeeva’s groundbreaking publication, several other research groups have reported in vivo NNSP, with the reported neurological changes ranging from feeding stimulation, memory recall, to near-infrared image vision.
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