Hope for brain disorders
Hope for brain disorders
While the new ETH technology holds great therapeutic potential, its success depends on partnerships being forged.
Estimates suggest that almost one sixth of the world’s population suffers from one form of brain disease or another. Despite advances in basic neuroscience, the treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders presents a major challenge. Many of these disorders are caused by impaired functions of specific brain regions.
Experience with deep brain stimulation shows that methods that exert targeted influence on the respective brain regions can drastically improve even serious disorders like depression, anxiety, epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease. However, these therapies are invasive and are only used in very severe cases. The most common solution therefore is to give drugs systemically. However, these drugs don’t affect the desired brain regions alone. As a result, the dosage has to be reduced accordingly which disappointingly leads in most cases to treatment failure.
Innovative technology
After ten years of intensive research, the Neurotechnology Group led by Professor M. Fatih Yanik at the Institute of Neuroinformatics at ETH Zurich has now developed a technology that allows drugs to be delivered to specific areas of the brain with millimetre precision and in very high concentrations. With this technology, 1300 times higher drug concentrations can be achieved in a given brain area compared to current drug treatments.
© Neurotechnology Group / Ella Maru Studio
Initial studies on small animals have shown that, using this technology, chronic anxiety can be alleviated without side effects. For the delivery process, the group developed special ultrasound-controllable drug carriers. After injecting these carriers into the blood, a two-stage sequence of focussed ultrasound – also newly developed – is directed at the desired areas in the brain. The first sequence of ultrasound waves aggregates the drug carriers in the targeted brain region with millimetre precision, thereby achieving a high local concentration of the medication. In the second sequence, the active ingredient is released from the carrier, which then crosses the intact blood-brain barrier locally.
From feasibility study to first patient
To advance this promising technology, preclinical studies on sheep are currently under preparation. In addition to Fatih Yanik and his team, the other contributors to the study are the digital Trial Intervention Platform (dTIP) at ETH, Good Manufacturing Practice Facility at ETH, University of Basel and University Hospital Basel, Vetsuisse Faculty at University of Zurich and the Department of Neurosurgery at University Hospital Zurich. After the preclinical study, the goal is to start clinical trials on patients. A partnership with the Swiss Epilepsy Clinic in Zurich has been planned for this purpose.
Potentially revolutionary effect
The technology described has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. It will be possible to deliver drugs to specific brain areas in the future and, thanks to high local concentration, to achieve much greater efficacy with minimal side effects.
Innosuisse and the Swiss National Science Foundation honoured the project with a Bridge Discovery Award in 2022. To fast-track clinical applications of the technology, further funding is urgently needed. We look forward to engaging in dialogue with partners who wish to help achieve a breakthrough in a technology that holds immense promise for our health.
“As an ETH alumna, I’m convinced that ETH will continue to produce innovations that are true gamechangers.”
Daniela Bosshardt
Member of the ETH Foundation Board of Trustees
