MEDICAL
WWW.MADEIN.IE « MARCH 2020 « 19
“Despite some
advances in the
field, heart disease
still places a huge
burden on our
healthcare systems
and the life quality
muscle.
“Essentially, our material
addresses a lot of
requirements. The bulk material
is currently approved for medical
of patients
worldwide.”
device use, the design accommodates the
movement of the pumping heart, and has
been functionalised to accommodate
signaling between isolated contractile
tissues,” said Monaghan. “This study
currently reports the development of our
method and design, but we are now looking
forward to furthering the next generation
of designs and materials with the eventual
aim of applying this patch as a therapy for a
heart attack.”
“Our electroconductive patches support
electrical conduction between biological
tissue in an ex vivo model. These results
therefore represent a significant step
towards generating a bioengineered patch
capable of recapitulating aspects of heart
tissue - namely its mechanical movement
and electrical signaling,” said Dinorath
Olvera, professor at Trinity and first author
on the paper. MADE
contracting. The mechanical demands of
heart muscle (myocardium) cannot be met
using polyester-based thermoplastic
polymers, which are predominantly the
approved options for biomedical
applications.
However, the functionality of
thermoplastic polymers could be leveraged
by its structural geometry. The
bioengineers then set about
making a patch that could
control the expansion of a
material in multiple
directions and tune this
using an engineering
design approach.
The patches were
manufactured via melt
electrowriting - a core
technology of
Spraybase® - which is
reproducible, accurate, and
scalable. The patches were also
coated with the electroconductive polymer
polypyrrole to provide electrical
conductivity while maintaining cell
compatibility.
The patch withstood repeated stretching,
which is a dominant concern for cardiac
biomaterials, and showed good elasticity, to
accurately mimic that key property of heart
Global engineering technologies company, Renishaw,
announces that its award-winning intraparenchymal drug
delivery device, has played a critical role in a joint Phase 1-2
clinical study with Herantis Pharma plc, for the investigation
of cerebral dopamine neurotrophic factor (CDNF) as a
treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
The study’s repeated delivery regime, which allows
for a prolonged therapeutic window, is crucial to achieve
the potential neuroprotective and neurorestorative actions
of CDNF, and has been made possible through the use of
Renishaw’s ground-breaking drug delivery system.
Initial results indicate predictable and accurate placement
of the device as well as its positive
performance and safety. The
Company will continue to assess
the results as the data is analysed
and through the extension part
of the study, as patients receive
ongoing monthly infusions of
CDNF using the Renishaw device.
Rupert Jones, Managing
Director of Renishaw Medical,
said, “The results of this
trial and the performance of
Renishaw’s drug delivery system
are promising for the many
people with Parkinson’s disease
and I would like to take this
opportunity to thank the trial participants for making this
possible.”
He added, “These results allow us to build towards
CE marking of Renishaw’s device so that further
neurodegenerative and neuro-oncological conditions
can benefit from our technology. We see our device as an
enabling technology that facilitates the reliable and repeated
delivery of therapeutic agents direct to targets deep within
the parenchyma, as part of a paradigm shift in the way
treatments of neurological disorders and brain tumours are
progressing.”
Renishaw’s intermittent drug delivery system comprises
of up to four catheters, which can be implanted into
target areas within the brain.
The catheters are accessed
via a 3D printed titanium
transcutaneous port implanted
behind the patient’s ear.
Drug-filled infusion lines
are connected using an MRI
compatible application set,
which repeatably locates onto
the port. Retractable needles
extend through a septum in the
port to enable therapeutics in
the external infusion lines to be
infused through the implanted
catheters.
Renishaw completes main part of Parkinson’s trial
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