A team of biomedical engineers from China and the U.S. has developed a thin patch resembling a band-aid that can be applied to an internal organ to directly deliver therapeutic drugs. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes the factors that went into the development of their patch, its construction and its capabilities.
There is a great need for a method to deliver drugs directly to organs rather than through the bloodstream, where they are dispersed throughout the body, causing undesirable side effects. Such a device would allow the direct targeting of tumors or be able to assist with organ repair. To date, efforts to make such a device have not fared well due to a variety of issues.
In this new research, the team in China says that they have found a way around these hurdles and have developed a wireless, battery-free thin patch that delivers drugs directly to an ailing organ.
The researchers describe their device as a nanofluid “band-aid” that can serve as a highway of sorts for drug delivery—it has integrated electronics that allow for micro-nano processing, which is used to generate a wireless power supply. The power assists in creating pores of access into organs and for sending drugs through them.
The patch attaches directly to a targeted organ, where it can perforate individual cell membranes using low voltage applied via an electric field, delivering drugs directly to the cells in a desired part of an organ.
The research team has already tested their patch and found success with treating breast tumors and liver injuries. They note that it also offers feedback, which allows doctors to monitor organ repair and tumor reduction or even watch for new tumor development. The team claims that the patch has already been used to identify the eukaryotic enzyme DUS2 as a lung-specific metastasis driver in a mouse model.
