A new method of treating Parkinsonism or a mind game?
Femtosecond laser and liposomes for the treatment of Parkinson's disease
NanoNewsNet based on OIST materials: Using Femtosecond Lasers to Administer DrugsTo combat Parkinson's disease, scientists from two departments – femtosecond spectroscopy and neurobiological Research – of the University of Postgraduate Education at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), together with their colleagues from the University of Otago (University of Otago), New Zealand, combined physics and neuroscience.
They use lasers, nanotechnology and neurology to develop a new universal drug delivery system. The researchers describe their development, in which the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine necessary for the treatment of Parkinson's disease occurs using a laser, in an article in the journal Scientific Reports (Nakano et al., Mimicking subsecond neurotransmitter dynamics with femtosecond laser stimulated nanosystems).
Targeted delivery of medicines for the treatment of many diseases is an exciting new area of research. Today, doctors are forced to prescribe medications systematically. This means that they are obtained by tissues or organs that do not need them, which leads to undesirable side effects. A good example of this is chemotherapy, which is toxic not only to cancer cells, but also to healthy tissue. Recent advances in nanotechnology and biology open up wide opportunities in the field of targeted drug delivery. In this case, the drugs are released in a specific tissue or even in individual cells, which allows the drugs to achieve only the intended goal. In a recent article, scientists from OIST describe a way to encapsulate a drug in a lipid, or fat, envelope – a liposome, and control its release using a laser.
In order to use laser technologies for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, the staff of the Research Department of Neurobiology decided to join forces with colleagues from the department of femtosecond spectroscopy. They wanted to use precise time intervals and a certain intensity of femtosecond lasers to control the activation of liposomes in order to simulate the natural dynamics of dopamine release for the body. Dopamine was encapsulated in a liposome bound to a gold nanoparticle. A femtosecond laser pulse was used as an energy source. The energy is absorbed by the gold nanoparticle, and then transferred to the liposome, as a result of which the liposome opens and releases dopamine. The period of its opening and, consequently, the amount of dopamine released are precisely controlled by the intensity and duration of the laser operation. An important point: unlike previous developments based on the same principle, liposomes are not destroyed and the release of dopamine, or any other chemical loaded into them, can be repeated many times.
A dopamine-loaded liposome is bound to a gold nanoparticle. The laser transfers energy to the nanoparticle, which activates the liposome. The activated liposome opens and releases dopamine, but is not destroyed, which makes it a "reusable" tool. The method allows you to fully control the time and place of release of the drug, as well as its dose, which is determined by the intensity and duration of the laser.
(A drawing from an article in Scientific Reports.)The continuation of this research will be the use of laser-activated liposomes in living tissue and, ultimately, in the body of a living animal.
The ability to deliver almost any type of drugs – synthetic or natural compounds – to the right place at the right time with full dose control opens up broad prospects in medicine. The future of new technologies and treatments may lie on the border between different scientific fields, such as physics and neuroscience. OIST scientists are solving today's scientific and medical mysteries, such as Parkinson's disease, by developing tomorrow's technologies.
From the editorial office:
The technology is interesting, but will it work in vivo, not in vitro?
Infrared light is needed to heat gold nanoparticles, and its maximum penetration depth into bone tissue is 25 mm, into soft tissues – 100 mm. Will the radiation of sufficient intensity to heat gold nanoparticles burn the skin?
And an even more difficult question is how to deliver liposomes to the brain that are guaranteed not to break through the blood-brain barrier?
One can, of course, imagine a hollow light guide implanted in the brain for regular replenishment of liposomes and their irradiation, but won't the medicine be more bitter than the disease as a result?
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