Magneto-Electric Nano-Particles for Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation

Abstract

This paper for the first time discusses a computational study of using magneto-electric (ME) nanoparticles to artificially stimulate the neural activity deep in the brain. The new technology provides a unique way to couple electric signals in the neural network to the magnetic dipoles in the nanoparticles with the purpose to enable a non-invasive approach. Simulations of the effect of ME nanoparticles for non-invasively stimulating the brain of a patient with Parkinson's Disease to bring the pulsed sequences of the electric field to the levels comparable to those of healthy people show that the optimized values for the concentration of the 20-nm nanoparticles (with the magneto-electric (ME) coefficient of 100 V cm−1 Oe−1 in the aqueous solution) is 3×106 particles/cc, and the frequency of the externally applied 300-Oe magnetic field is 80 Hz.

Status and Perspectives of Multiferroic Magnetoelectric Composite Materials and Applications

“…The potential use of ME nanoparticles (MENs) as carriers for ondemand drug release and to artificially stimulate the neural activity deep in the brain has also been suggested [109,110].…”

“…(c) MENs as field-controlled nano-electroporation sites to let the drug through the cancer cell membranes [109]. (d) Illustration of the deep brain stimulation approach [110].…”

“…The external magnetic field generates AC signals in ME nanoparticles that are correlated with the frequency spectrum of the neural activity, which in turn causes neurons in that region to fire at similar frequencies ( Figure 16d). Yue et al [110] modeled the effect of MENs to non-invasively stimulate the brain of a patient with Parkinson's disease. Using the optimized values for the concentration of the 20-nm nanoparticles (with α ME of 100 mV/cm¨Oe in the aqueous solution) of 3ˆ10 6 particles/cc and excitation frequency of the externally applied 300-Oe magnetic field of 80 Hz, the pulsed sequences of the electric field were brought to the levels comparable to those of healthy people.…”

Mapping the Brain’s electric fields with Magnetoelectric nanoparticles

“…Recently, a concept has been pioneered to exploit unique properties of magnetoelectric nanoparticles (MENs) (Eerenstein et al, 2006) to wirelessly access a local electric field activity deep in the brain for both wirelessly controlled local stimulation and mapping of neural activity (Yue et al, 2012;Guduru et al, 2015). Similar to traditional magnetic nanoparticles (MNs), MENs have a non-zero magnetic moment.…”

MENs Doped Adhesive and Influence on Fracture Toughness

“…The drug then can be selectively released by applying an external magnetic field [7]. More of Khizroev's work in MENs has also continued to use MENs as a non-invasive stimulus for patients with Parkinson's disease and specific ovarian cancer cell target for drug delivery [8,9]. Other applications outside of biomedicine include the use of BiFeO3 MENs for photo catalysis and magnetic thin films using Ca3CoMnO6 MENs [10,11].…”