In recent years, however, a new method of analysis, liquid biopsy, based on the analysis of nucleic acids in the blood to detect tumor cells or tumor DNA in the blood, has made a furor in medicine. However, it is worth noting that in terms of pathology, the term “liquid biopsy” is inaccurate because it refers exclusively to a molecular analytic method and not to a biopsy in the pathological sense. The method is based on the fact that tumor cells also release genetic information into the blood, which can be examined for changes that occur in the blood only in very small quantities. Therefore, their detection has only become possible due to the development of new methods for highly sensitive nucleic acid detection, such as “digital drop PCR” or “next/next generation sequencing” (NGS). In addition to peripheral blood, namely plasma, urine, stool, pleural or cerebrospinal fluid can be used as liquid biopsy material.

The liquid biopsy method is used in oncology for purposes such as screening, early cancer diagnosis or assessment of metastatic risks. An important area of use of liquid biopsy is also the identification of target structures for therapy, mechanisms of resistance, and tumor monitoring in general.

Tumor monitoring by liquid biopsy is particularly interesting because it allows both the detection of potentially developing recurrent tumors at a very early stage and the deciphering of their possible altered molecular profile. Thus, if resistance mutations occur during first-line therapy, patient survival could theoretically be significantly increased by switching the targeted therapy.

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In addition, complications occur with the classic pacemaker, including infection of the implanted area, displacement of the device, tissue damage, bleeding, and thrombosis. Over the past 5 years, several models have been created to make the device as comfortable and effective for patients as possible.

• In 2015, Israeli scientists proposed using a light-sensitive protein to control rhythm. Using a virus, they injected the algal protein ChR2, which responds to blue light, into the heart cells of experimental rats. It opens ion channels in the membrane in response to the pulse. The experiment showed that the flashes of light can be used to tune the heart rate. However, in order to use ChR2 with the human heart, the problem of light penetration through body tissues must be solved.
• In 2017, researchers from Israel and Canada developed a biological pacemaker using cells that are functionally similar to natural cells that stimulate heart function. They grew them from embryonic stem cells. During the experiment, the transplanted pacemaker cells restored heart rhythm in six out of seven rats.
• In 2019, American engineers developed a generator capable of generating electricity through the contractions of the heart muscle. The current in this case is transmitted to a nearby pacemaker. The developers believe that in the future such a device will make it possible to create a fully autonomous pacemaker that does not require battery replacement.

Statistics and Practice of Pacemaker Use

At least 3 million people around the world live with pacemakers, and about 600,000 devices are implanted in patients each year. In Great Britain alone, 32,902 devices were implanted in 2018-2019 to keep the heart working steadily. Many movie stars, athletes, and politicians live with pacemakers. Cardiomyopathies, bradycardia, heart block, and heart failure can be reasons for the device.

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A nanoparticle with a diameter of 5-100 nm consists of 103-106 atoms. Threadlike and film-like particles may contain considerably more atoms and have even two linear sizes, but their properties remain characteristic of a substance having a nanocrystalline structure. The ratio of linear sizes of nanoparticles allows them to be viewed as one-, two- or three-dimensional (1D-, 2D- and 3D-nanoparticles, respectively). They are usually referred to as nanostructures.

Nanomaterials can be made up of inorganic compounds (metals, carbon derivatives and others) and organic, including natural compounds (proteins, fatty acids, nucleic acids). The latter constitute one of the sections of nanotechnology – nanobiotechnology or biomolecular nanotechnology.

The medical additions of nanotechnology have contributed to the emergence of a new scientific field: nanomedicine. It encompasses such sections as tracking, repairing, constructing and controlling human biological systems at the molecular level with the help of engineered nanodevices and nanomaterials, enabling operations from diagnostics and monitoring to the destruction of pathogenic microorganisms, restoration of damaged organs, supplying necessary substances to the body.

According to the forecasts of the American association National Science Foundation, the market volume of goods and services using nanotechnology may amount to 1 trillion U.S. dollars in the next 10-15 years. The global market for nanodevices will grow by an average of 28% per year.

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The example of test prosthesis built by 3D printer

3D printing has been used in medicine since the early 2000s, when the technology was first used to make dental implants. Since then, the use of 3D printing in medicine has expanded significantly: Doctors from around the world describe ways to use 3D printing to produce ears, skeletal parts, airways, jawbone, eye parts, cell cultures, stem cells, blood vessels and vascular networks, tissues and organs, new drug forms, and much more.

Using model files for 3D printing provides an opportunity for sharing work among researchers. Instead of trying to reproduce parameters described in scientific journals, physicians can use and modify off-the-shelf 3D models. To that end, the National Institutes of Health established the 3dprint.nih.gov exchange in 2014 to facilitate the exchange of open-source 3D models for medical and anatomical products, non-standard equipment and mockups of proteins, viruses and bacteria.

Neuroanatomical models printed on a 3D printer can be particularly useful for neurosurgeons, providing insight into the most complex structures in the human body, which in principle cannot be obtained based on two-dimensional images.

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Neuroprosthetics or neural prosthetics is a field of biomedical engineering and neurobiology concerned with the development of neural prostheses and their operation. The system was first used to replace sensory and motor functions. And scientists are exploring different options for delivering signals to the nervous system.

Prosthetics researchers are now trying to provide a prosthesis that will feel objects just as well as a real hand, perhaps even better. After all, such a prosthesis can lift objects weighing up to 20 kg!

After a limb is amputated, the motor nerves that controlled it remain in the body. The remaining nerves can be surgically transferred to a small section of a large muscle (this is called reinnervation). For example, to the large pectoral muscle, if we are talking about an amputated arm. As a result, the person thinks that he or she should move the finger. The brain sends a signal to the part of the pectoral muscle to which the nerve that used to go to the fingers is attached. The signal is picked up by electrodes that send the pulse through wires to a processor inside the robotic arm. This is where electromyography helps. This technology records the difference in electrical potentials that occur when a muscle works. It picks up the movement of the reinnervated part of the pectoral muscle, and the signal is then transmitted to the desired part of the prosthesis, and that part moves.

Targeted sensory reinnervation is carried out in the same way. It is needed so that the person can feel touch, heat or pressure with the prosthesis. The procedure is reversed. The surgeon reattaches the remaining sensory nerve to the skin area on the chest. And the sensors on the prosthesis transmit a signal from touch to this very skin area. And the person experiences tactile sensations.

Neuroprosthetics is a global topic for the future. Technology is becoming a reality thanks to the hard work of scientists. Perhaps in the future scientists will develop cognitive implants, making us smarter and stronger… Will we become a cyber society…?

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The field of brain implants is staggering in its scope. The main goal of most research is to create a bio-device that can stimulate certain areas of the brain. With the help of such influence it is realistic to restore vision and hearing after a stroke or head trauma, to alleviate the manifestations of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. The technology can also restore motor abilities in paralyzed patients.

In addition, some companies and research groups suggest the possibility of using neurochips to create neurocomputer interfaces. That is, such systems form a two-way or one-way direct connection between the computer and the brain to exchange information. At the same time, experiments on animals are regularly carried out; they are used both for the preliminary stage of tests before introduction to humans, and for measurements of brain activity for purely scientific purposes.

Brain implant systems are usually a direct chip, a battery for power, and a computer for control and imaging. The chip sends, blocks or records (and records and stimulates simultaneously) the electrical impulses of either an individual neuron or entire groups in specific parts of the brain. Until recently, the use of brain implants was limited or considered impossible due to the computational power of the computer and insufficient development of neurophysiology.

The power of thought

Before organizing full-fledged clinical trials in humans, scientists test developments and drugs on animals. In the case of brain implants, experiments on other biological species may be dictated not only by the need to comply with established rules, but also by the observation of brain activity of a particular species.

For example, back in 2006 the Medical College of Georgia conducted an experiment to study the process of functional adaptation of the brain in the process of learning sensory distinction. Monkeys’ brains were stimulated with electrodes and tried to teach them the connection between sound changes and rewards.

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