Exciting new technology may hold the key to better treatment for brain injuries.
An exciting development in science is the increasing use of innovative technology in the medical health field. The latest new research, being conducted by the Department of Defense, deals with using nanotechnology to treat a wide range of injuries from infections to traumatic brain injury and treat them more rapidly than is possible now.
The project, referred to as In Vivo Nanoplatforms for Therapeutics, hopes to create a vehicle to deliver various forms of medications and other treatments. This is the stuff science fiction is made of, but it has the potential to become reality. The idea behind this project is to use new classes of nanoparticles, capable of sensing a patient’s physiological well-being, to treat abnormalities and other conditions. Even though this may be reminiscent of the best stories in the world of fiction, the potential is mind-blowing.
A particle, when referring to this kind of technology, is a small object considered to be and to act like a whole unit as it relates to its properties and transport capabilities. A nanoparticle is the smallest of the small particles and has a wide variety of potential for use within not only the human body to deliver various payloads but in the optical field.
The most exciting potential is the possibility that these nanoparticles may help revolutionize the treatment protocol for traumatic brain injury, especially for soldiers returning from war. There is talk of coating these particles with a type of ribonucleic acid (RNA) because the smaller molecules are capable of binding to other messenger RNA molecules to deliver what they are carrying internally to its end destination.
The key to the effectiveness of this technology is that the payload injected into an individual’s body targets the disease process and halts it by delivering therapeutic but passive ultrafine particles that reduce side effects and prevent an immune system response. While this idea itself is not new, it is going beyond the original nanoscale systems created to monitor soldiers’ health and body systems. The hope is to move forward into diagnosing and treating.
This future-looking technology may be an important partner to those who have been exposed to improvised explosive devices during the course of their tour of duty overseas. The military does have a blast gauge attached to helmets, a vehicle or personal gear that is capable of measuring the amount of exposure a solider gets in the vicinity of an explosion; this helps in diagnosing brain injuries more accurately. However, if the nanoparticle technology is as successful as hoped, the lives of soldiers who sustain brain trauma may improve significantly.
Brooks Schuelke is an Austin personal injury attorney with Perlmutter & Schuelke LLP. Contact an Austin injury lawyer at Civtrial.com or (512) 476-4944.
