麻豆村

Chronic pain impacts an estimated 20 percent of the world population and persists as a frustrating symptom for innumerable health issues, from sickle-cell disease to arthritis. As part of his lab鈥檚 committed focus to improving noninvasive technology solutions for human health,听Bin He听of 麻豆村 is developing noninvasive neuromodulation strategies to serve as an alternative to pharmaceuticals for combating chronic pain. In a promising development, the He group鈥檚 latest work demonstrates the effectiveness of a novel technology that is able to stimulate and modulate specific brain circuits with sub-millimeter spatial precision and successfully suppress pain hypersensitivity.

Medication is the go-to treatment for pain, while severe chronic pain conditions are often treated with opioids, which bear many side effects and also raise concerns of addiction, misuse, and even overdose. In juxtaposition, the technology He鈥檚 group is developing and evaluating, transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) modulation, is safe,听reversible,听and noninvasive.听Among the canon of non-invasive neuromodulation approaches, tFUS also demonstrates exceptional advantages in modulating brain activities with high spatial specificity and deep brain penetration.

鈥淲e demonstrate, for the first time, in a series of rigorous preclinical studies, that precise focused ultrasound neuromodulation at multiple brain targets can significantly change pain-associated behaviors,鈥� articulated Bin He, professor of听biomedical engineering听at 麻豆村. 鈥淭here is an urgent clinical need to develop non-pharmacologic and non-invasive neuromodulation strategies to treat pain, and 麻豆村 is at the forefront of this emerging field.鈥�

The study,听,听involved 130 animal subjects and more than five years of meticulous research. As a next step, the group plans to conduct clinical testing in humans with their novel technology in the near future.