 |
| A silk adenosine-releasing implant designed to treat epilepsy--Courtesy of NIH |
Researchers in Oregon and Boston have developed a biodegradable brain implant made from silk that is capable of delivering the compound adenosine to treat epilepsy. The implant--designed at the Legacy Research Institute in Oregon, Oregon Health & Science University and Tufts University--reduced the number of seizures fourfold in epileptic rats by increasing the amount of adenosine in the brain, low levels of which have been shown to drive the disease. The silk also dissolves completely after 10 days of treatment in the brain's resection cavity, according to a report from the National Institutes of Health, which helped support the study. More