Gold nanoparticles for high-frequency deep brain stimulation

The purpose of the present research proposal is to develop and evaluate a non-invasive method to stimulate the activity in brain tissue, using gold nanoparticles (GNPs).

The method is intended to be used for treatment of patients with neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, but also epilepsy, severe depression etc.

The existing methods used for deep brain stimulation (DBS) have several important limitations such as invasiveness, limited miniaturization, poor resolution and limited spatial coverage (not able to monitor or stimulate a sufficient number of neurons). These factors hamper the therapeutic effect, or render the existing solutions unattractive for clinicians and patients.

The long-term goal of the proposed research project is to create a wearable non-implantable adaptive neuro stimulation device for brain disorders that can be rapidly accepted by clinicians and patients.

The proposal is based on using GNPs for artificial stimulation of the neurons, using wireless magnetothermal deep brain stimulation. A successful implementation of the project could have a tremendous impact on existing DBS therapies.

The project will provide reliable novel theory, verified by accurate numerical simulations and experiments, needed to assess the feasibility of the proposed non-invasive DBS method.

The project is based on previous work by the applicant on theoretical and simulation methods for studying signal propagation and energy absorption in GNP-fed cancer tissue.