Publications

JTD Keywords: biochemical engineering, neurotrauma and neurodegenerative disease, optogenetics and dreadds, spinal cord injury (sci), Biochemical engineering, Neurotrauma and neurodegenerative disease, Optogenetics and dreadds, Sensorimotor, Spinal cord injury (sci)

Over the most recent decades, the development of new biological platforms to study disease progression and drug efficacy has been of great interest due to the high increase in the rate of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs). Therefore, blood-brain barrier (BBB) as an organ-on-a-chip (OoC) platform to mimic brain-barrier performance could offer a deeper understanding of NDDs as well as a very valuable tool for drug permeability testing for new treatments. A very attractive improvement of BBB-oC technology is the integration of detection systems to provide continuous monitoring of biomarkers in real time and a fully automated analysis of drug permeably, rendering more efficient platforms for commercialization. In this Perspective, an overview of the main BBB-oC configurations is introduced and a critical vision of the BBB-oC platforms integrating electronic read out systems is detailed, indicating the strengths and weaknesses of current devices, proposing the great potential for biosensors integration in BBB-oC. In this direction, we name potential biomarkers to monitor the evolution of NDDs related to the BBB and/or drug cytotoxicity using biosensor technology in BBB-oC.

JTD Keywords: biosensors, blood−brain barrier (bbb), neurodegenerative diseases (ndds), organ-on-a-chip (ooc), Bbb, Biosensors, Blood-brain barrier (bbb), Electrical-resistance, Electrochemical biosensors, Endothelial-cells, In-vitro model, Matrix metalloproteinases, Mechanisms, Neurodegenerative diseases (ndds), Organ-on-a-chip (ooc), Permeability, Stress, Transendothelial electrical resistance (teer), Transepithelial, Transepithelial/transendothelial electrical resistance (teer), Transport

This work provides an overview of the up to date research related to intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) and their function as novel drug delivery systems (DDSs). Drugs administrated to patients do not always reach the targeted organ, which may affect other tissues leading to undesired side-effects. To overcome these problems, DDSs are under development. Nowadays, it is possible to target the administration and, most importantly, to achieve a controlled drug dosage upon external stimuli. Particularly, the attention of this work focuses on the drug release upon electrical stimuli employing ICPs. These are well-known organic polymers with outstanding electrical properties similar to metals but also retaining some advantageous characteristics normally related to polymers, like mechanical stability and easiness of processing. Depending on the redox state, ICPs can incorporate or release anionic or cationic molecules on-demand. Besides, the releasing rate can be finely tuned by the type of electrical stimulation applied. Another interesting feature is that ICPs are capable to sense redox molecules such as dopamine, serotonin or ascorbic acid among others. Therefore, future prospects go towards the design of materials where the releasing rate could be self-adjusted in response to changes in the surrounding environment. This recompilation of ideas and projects provides a critic outline of ICPs synthesis progress related to their use as DDSs. Definitely, ICPs are a very promising branch of DDSs where the dose can be finely tuned by the exertion of an external stimulus, hence optimizing the repercussions of the drug and diminishing its side effects.

JTD Keywords: Controlled release, DDS, Drug delivery, Electrical stimuli, ICP, Intrinsically conducting polymers