New experimental technology shows early signs of having life transforming capabilities for paralysis
New experimental technology is showing early signs of having life transforming capabilities for those living with paralysis.
This experimental technology, Brain-computer interface (BCI), makes it possible to move robotic limbs using only your thoughts.
However, before BCI can make the transition from the lab to patients’ everyday lives, the problem of how to coax the body to coexist with the implants needs solving.
Takashi (TK) Kozai, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, who leads the BIONIC Lab, states there are “two major challenges.”
One challenge is that the scar tissue that forms around the electrodes after being implanted, complicate the signal’s path to the nearest neuron and also dampens the voltage.
Another challenge is that they are currently experiencing a lot of variability in performance.
Korai, says: “Sometimes these devices work, and sometimes they don’t.”
In May of this year, Kozai was awarded $3 million R01 grant over five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The focus of the project is to gain a better understanding of a specific cell type, known as coligodendrocytes, which he believes may play a key role in settling this unique human-versus-machine dilemma.
Oligodendrocytes form the insulative coating known as myelin, which makes neural connections in the brain much faster and also more streamlined.
Without this insulation, a long line of naked axons straining to send impulses along jagged, roundabout paths would be left. Kozai realised this inefficiency, doesn’t just cause a slowdown, but also means these neurons have to work much harder than their myelinated counterparts, which wastes precious energy.
Kozai, highlights: “So oligodendrocytes are essentially energy savers.”
If Kozai’s hunch is correct about oligodendrocytes an historically understudied cell in his research specialty this work could have broad implications for a number of debilitating conditions.
Historically, the thinking has been that the trouble with the BCI starts like this: As a result of electrode implantation, blood vessels are damaged, which sends plasma proteins flying off where they should not be. Their presence on the wrong side of the blood-brain barrier unleashes an assault of immune cells, called microglia, which leads to neurons dying.
The team observed that the friendly fire was not the only problem; it was that these neurons, having been choked off from their blood supply, had simply starved to death. So Kozai wondered if they could somehow fortify the neurons against that starvation, which is what pointed Kozai toward the oligodendrocytes.
With this new R01 grant, Kozai is targeting certain progenitor cells that each have potential to give rise to either an oligodendrocyte or enemy number one: scar tissue.
In a preliminary study, the team treated these cells with a drug to encourage the former. When administered before implant surgery, they discovered that the drug helped more neurons survive after the procedure.
It is hoped that this project will also probe oligodendrocyte health more generally, insights that could potentially expand our understanding of traumatic brain injury and stroke—which both involve a decrease in blood flow in the brain—as well as multiple sclerosis (MS)—an autoimmune onslaught on neurons that’s initially sparked by oligodendrocyte death.
Kozai’s group may be one of the first to have suggested that preserving oligodendrocytes could be a novel treatment against dementia in Alzheimer’s. In that disease, the focus has long been on the plaques that form in the brain.
Kozai, says: “But there’s growing evidence that it’s actually the blood vessels that suffer first—the plaques form on the blood vessels before they form on the neurons.
“That, in turn, leads to the plaque forming on the neurons.”
