OIST Researchers Create Femtosecond Lasers Drug Delivery System
Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have announced that they’ve developed a new drug delivery system using femtosecond lasers. The OIST team used a laser to release a neurochemical that is considered dysfunctional in Parkinson’s Disease patients. The researchers said that the technology allowed for a repeatable and controlled drug delivery system.
Lasers can be extremely accurate, which creates a new potential for efficient drug delivery systems. Currently, drug delivery is typically administered orally, intravenously, or through the skin. On the way to its target in the body, the drug can encounter a variety of secondary tissues and organs, creating unwanted side effects that can leave lasting effects on the body. As lasers are improved as a drug delivery technology, they can be used to accurately release drugs into particular tissues or even in individual cells, which minimizes the unwanted side effects of drugs that are exposed to different regions of the body.
In the OIST study, the researchers described the process of modulating the release of the drug using a laser’s pulse. The researchers used the neurochemical dopamine, encapsulating it in a liposome tethered to a gold nanoparticle. Using the femtosecond laser as an energy source, the gold nanoparticle absorbed the energy and transferred it to the liposome, resulting in the liposome releasing the dopamine.
Takashi Nakano, a researcher involved in the project, commented on the study. “With this method, we can administer a wide range of drugs with precise timing and duration using laser pulses with sub-second accuracy. We are very excited about the potential this new tool brings to neurobiological research,” he said.
The research was led by OIST Professor Keshav Dani and was conducted at the school’s Graduate University Femtosecond Spectroscopy Unit and Neurobiology Research Unit. Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand also assisted with the study.