Nuclear Drugs

The original version of this article [1], published on 17 February 2020, contained incorrect sentence.

Scientific Reports - Plasma metabolomics supports the use of...

The original version of this article (Goldsobel et al. 2019), published on 20 November 2019, contained incorrect data. In this Correction the affected parts of the article are shown.

The Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes is the global medical and scientific headquarters of bioelectronic medicine, where traditional approaches of treating disease are challenged through discoveries at the interplay of biology, engineering and medicine.

The desire to harness electricity for improving human health dates back at least two millennia. As electrical signals form the basis of communication within our nervous system, the ability to monitor, control, and precisely deliver electricity within our bodies holds great promise for treating disease. The nascent field of bioelectronic medicine capitalizes on this approach to improve human health, however, challenges remain in relating electrical nerve activity to physiological function. To overcome these challenges, we need more long-term studies on neural circuits where the nerve activity and physiological output is well-established. In this Letter, I highlight a recent study that takes just such an approach.

Generally, nasal congestion is reported to be the most troublesome symptom of allergic rhinitis and has been shown to have negative effects on sleep, productivity, work, and school performance. A new patient-reported outcome (PRO) tool called the Congestion Quantifier Seven-Item Test (CQ7) was devel …

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In the absence of approved treatments to repair damage to the central nervous system, the role of neurosurgeons after spinal cord injury (SCI) often remains confined to spinal cord decompression and vertebral fracture stabilization. However, recent advances in bioelectronic medicine are changing this landscape. Multiple neuromodulation therapies that target circuits located in the brain, midbrain, or spinal cord have been able to improve motor and autonomic functions. The spectrum of implantable brain-computer interface technologies is also expanding at a fast pace, and all these neurotechnologies are being progressively embedded within rehabilitation programs in order to augment plasticity of spared circuits and residual projections with training. Here, we summarize the impending arrival of bioelectronic medicine in the field of SCI. We also discuss the new role of functional neurosurgeons in neurorestorative interventional medicine, a new discipline at the intersection of neurosurgery, neuro-engineering, and neurorehabilitation.

Background Neurodegenerative diseases are devastating diagnoses. Examining local electric fields in response to neural activity in real time could shed light on understanding the origins of these diseases. To date, there has not been found a way to directly map these fields without interfering with the electric circuitry of the brain. This theoretical study is focused on a nanotechnology concept to overcome the challenge of brain electric field mapping in real time. The paper shows that coupling the magnetoelectric effect of multiferroic nanoparticles, known as magnetoelectric nanoparticles (MENs), with the ultra-fast and high-sensitivity imaging capability of the recently emerged magnetic particle imaging (MPI) can enable wirelessly conducted electric-field mapping with specifications to meet the requirements for monitoring neural activity in real time. Methods The MPI signal is numerically simulated on a realistic human brain template obtained from BrainWeb, while brain segmentation was performed with BrainSuite software. The finite element mesh is generated with Computer Geometry Algorithm Library. The effect of MENs is modeled through local point magnetization changes according to the magnetoelectric effect. Results It is shown that, unlike traditional magnetic nanoparticles, MENs, when coupled with MPI, provide information containing electric field’s spatial and temporal patterns due to local neural activity with signal sensitivities adequate for detection of minute changes at the sub-cellular level corresponding to early stage disease processes. Conclusions Like no other nanoparticles known to date, MENs coupled with MPI can be used for mapping electric field activity of the brain at the sub-neuronal level in real time. The potential applications span from prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases to paving the way to fundamental understanding and reverse engineering the brain.

Although highly active anti-retroviral therapy has resulted in remarkable decline in the morbidity and mortality in AIDS patients, inadequately low delivery of anti-retroviral drugs across the blood-brain barrier results in virus persistence. The capability of high-efficacy-targeted drug delivery an …

As the first journal in the rapidly evolving field of bioelectronic medicine, we are committed to furthering the discovery and development of nerve ...

Magnetic poly(ethyl-2-cyanoacrylate) (PECA) nanoparticles containing anti-cancer drugs (Cisplatin and Gemcitabine) were prepared by inter-facial polymerization. The spherical nanoparticles (d = 250 +/- 15 nm) with smooth surfaces and moderately uniform size distributions were obtained. The amount of …

“No prescriptions, no medicines, no injections. That’s the future. That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.” Kevin Tracey, MD. Dysautonomia International really scored when they got Kevin Tracey MD to be the keynote speaker at their 2020 Virtual Conference. He’s not involved in dysautonomia and knows nothing […]

The development of antiretroviral drugs over the past couple of decades has been commendable owing to the identification of several new targets within the overall HIV replication cycle. However, complete control over HIV/AIDS is yet to be achieved. This is because the current anti-HIV drugs, althoug …

Background Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) delivers Autonomic Regulation Therapy (ART) for heart failure (HF), and has been associated with improvement in cardiac function and heart failure symptoms. VNS is delivered using an implantable pulse generator (IPG) and lead with electrodes placed around the cervical vagus nerve. Because HF patients may receive concomitant cardiac defibrillation therapy, testing was conducted to determine the effect of defibrillation (DF) on the VNS system. Methods DF testing was conducted on three ART IPGs (LivaNova USA, Inc.) according to international standard ISO14708-1, which evaluated whether DF had any permanent effects on the system. Each IPG was connected to a defibrillation pulse generator and subjected to a series of high-energy pulses. Results The specified series of pulses were successfully delivered to each of the three devices. All three IPGs passed factory electrical tests, and interrogation confirmed that software and data were unchanged from the pre-programmed values. No shifts in parameters or failures were observed. Conclusions Implantable VNS systems were tested for immunity to defibrillation, and were found to be unaffected by a series of high-energy defibrillation pulses. These results suggest that this VNS system can be used safely and continue to function after patients have been defibrillated.

Like no other nanoparticles known to date, MENs coupled with MPI can be used for mapping electric field activity of the brain at the sub-neuronal level in real time. The potential applications span from prevention and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases to paving the way to fundamental understan …

Nuclear medicine in vivo is the practice of utilizing small amounts of radioactive substances (unsealed radioactive sources) to diagnose, monitor and treat disease. The utilization of radiopharmaceuticals offers a unique perspective on both disea...

Simultaneously measuring the activities of all neurons in a mammalian brain at millisecond resolution is a challenge beyond the limits of existing techniques in neuroscience. Entirely new approaches may be required, motivating an analysis of the fundamental physical constraints on the problem. We outline the physical principles governing brain activity mapping using optical, electrical, magnetic resonance, and molecular modalities of neural recording. Focusing on the mouse brain, we analyze the scalability of each method, concentrating on the limitations imposed by spatiotemporal resolution, energy dissipation, and volume displacement. Based on this analysis, all existing approaches require orders of magnitude improvement in key parameters. Electrical recording is limited by the low multiplexing capacity of electrodes and their lack of intrinsic spatial resolution, optical methods are constrained by the scattering of visible light in brain tissue, magnetic resonance is hindered by the diffusion and relaxation timescales of water protons, and the implementation of molecular recording is complicated by the stochastic kinetics of enzymes. Understanding the physical limits of brain activity mapping may provide insight into opportunities for novel solutions. For example, unconventional methods for delivering electrodes may enable unprecedented numbers of recording sites, embedded optical devices could allow optical detectors to be placed within a few scattering lengths of the m...

When nerves are damaged by trauma or disease, they are still capable of firing off electrical command signals that originate from the brain. Furthermore, those damaged nerves have an innate ability to partially regenerate, so they can heal from trauma and even reinnervate new muscle targets. For an amputee who has his/her damaged nerves surgically reconstructed, the electrical signals that are generated by the reinnervated muscle tissue can be sensed and interpreted with bioelectronics to control assistive devices or robotic prostheses. No two amputees will have identical physiologies because there are many surgical options for reconstructing residual limbs, which may in turn impact how well someone can interface with a robotic prosthesis later on. In this review, we aim to investigate what the literature has to say about different pathways for peripheral nerve regeneration and how each pathway can impact the neuromuscular tissue’s final electrophysiology. This information is important because it can guide us in planning the development of future bioelectronic devices, such as prosthetic limbs or neurostimulators. Future devices will primarily have to interface with tissue that has undergone some natural regeneration process, and so we have explored and reported here what is known about the bioelectrical features of neuromuscular tissue regeneration.

Technetium agents based on the technetium-99m (Tc-99m) radioisotope are frequently used agents in medical imaging. A radiopharmaceutical labeled with Tc-99m constitutes a co-ordination complex in which ligands bond to a central atom of Tc-99m by ...

Modulation of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) has a great potential for therapeutic intervention as well as restore bodily functions. Recent interest has focused on autonomic nerves, as they regulate extensive functions implicated in organ physiology, chronic disease state and appear tractable to targeted modulation of discrete nerve units. Therapeutic interventions based on specific bioelectronic neuromodulation depend on reliable neural interface to stimulate and record autonomic nerves. Furthermore, the function of stimulation and recording requires energy which should be delivered to the interface. Due to the physiological and anatomical challenges of autonomic nerves, various forms of this active neural interface need to be developed to achieve next generation of neural interface for bioelectronic medicine. In this article, we present an overview of the state-of-the-art for peripheral neural interface technology in relation to autonomic nerves. Also, we reveal the current status of wireless neural interface for peripheral nerve applications. Recent studies of a novel concept of self-sustainable neural interface without battery and electronic components are presented. Finally, the recent results of non-invasive stimulation such as ultrasound and magnetic stimulation are covered and the perspective of the future research direction is provided.

We concluded that DFUS has a clearly more superior imaging quality than CDUS and PDUS in demonstrating the vessel signals of thoracic lesions, with less blooming effect and color noise.

Neurosurgeon and immunologist Kevin Tracey shares the frontiers of a new, hybrid field - bioelectronic medicine.

Pharmacoresistance and adverse drug events designate a considerable group of patients with focal epilepsies that require alternative treatments such as neurosurgical intervention and neurostimulation. Electrical or magnetic stimulations of cortical brain areas for the treatment of pharmacoresistant focal epilepsies emerged from preclinical studies and experience through intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring in patients. Direct neurostimulation of seizure onset zones in neocortical brain areas may specifically affect neuronal networks involved in epileptiform activity without remarkable adverse influence on physiological cortical processing in immediate vicinity. Noninvasive low-frequency transcranial magnetic stimulation and cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation are suggested to be anticonvulsant; however, potential effects are ephemeral and require effect maintenance by ongoing stimulation. Invasive responsive neurostimulation, chronic subthreshold cortical stimulation, and epicranial cortical stimulation cover a broad range of different emerging technologies with intracranial and epicranial approaches that still have limited market access partly due to ongoing clinical development. Despite significant differences, the present bioelectronic technologies share common mode of actions with acute seizure termination by high-frequency stimulation and long-term depression induced by low-frequency magnetic or electrical stimulation or transcranial direct current stimulation.