The dissolving device precisely targets individual nerves
“Ice it”: that’s the age-old commonsense advice to quickly soothe pain. Despite its effectiveness, the low-tech treatment is limited by its bulk and imprecision. But that seemingly crude solution is now demonstrating potential as an alternative to opioids and other pain-relieving drugs. That alternative comes in the form of an implantable device—an ultraminiaturized ice pack applied directly to a single nerve.
The system couples microfluidics, tiny serpentine tubes through which liquid flows, with an electronic interface that measures and controls temperature, and hence nerve activity, via remote control, perhaps one day allowing a patient to adjust the setting. The cooling comes from a chemical contained in the tubes called perfluoropentane , which has already been approved for biomedical use as a contrast agent for ultrasound. Another compartment contains dry nitrogen.
These tests in rodents need further study, researchers say, because the treated nerve bundle contains nerve cells that carry not just pain but other sensations, as well as signals that are transmitted by motor and sympathetic nerves. If all of those nerves are silenced, that could have consequences such as numbness—which people report as quite unpleasant—or motor weakness. “There’s a lot happening when you cool the entire nerve,” Basbaum says.
The rationale behind the device rests on an “interesting property” exhibited by mammalian nerves: the fact that their level of functioning depends on temperature, says Matthew MacEwan of Washington University in St. Louis, a co-author of the new study. When cooled enough, nerves stop firing signals. That is exactly what Rogers, MacEwan and their colleagues were looking for. “We wanted to find a way to deliver mild nerve cooling as a means of shutting down and blocking painful stimuli,” he says.
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