Summary: A new “molecular candle” approach allows experts to monitor chemical changes in the brain non-invasively using a thin light-emitting sensor. This cutting-edge technology uses Raman spectroscopy to find chemical changes brought on by tumors, injuries, or other pathologies without first affecting the brain.
This approach analyzes healthy brain tissue with great precision, which is significant potential for the identification and study of brain diseases, unlike previous methods that required genetic modifications. Coming advancements aim to incorporate artificial intelligence to improve diagnostic accuracy and explore new medical applications.
Important Information:
- Non-invasive tracking: The chemical lantern detects changes in the brain without affecting the tissue.
- Advanced Diagnostics: It identifies chemical changes in disorders like cancers and trauma with great precision.
- AI Integration: Synthetic intelligence may enhance clinical markers and describe pathological entities.
Origin: CSIC
One of the biggest challenges of medical research is monitoring the changes being made in the head at the chemical level by cancer and additional neurological disorders in a non-invasive way.
This is accomplished by introducing lighting into the neurons of animals using a very narrow sensor, which is still in the experimental stage.
A global team, including representatives from the Spanish National Research Council ( CSIC ) and the Spanish National Cancer Research Center ( CNIO ), is responsible for the innovation, which was published today in the journal Nature Methods.
The writers refer to the new method as a “molecular lantern” because it provides information on how mental cell reacts with light chemically. This allows study of chemical changes caused by tumours, whether major or invasive, and also by injuries such as mind stress.
The molecular lantern is a sensor that is less than one mm thick and has a tip that is one thousandth of a millimeter ( a micron ) thick and invisible to the naked eye. It can be inserted deeply into the head without causing any harm ( a human hair, for instance, has a size between 30 and 50 millimeters ).
The researchers of the paper explain that the sensor is not yet ready for use in patients, but rather a “promising” research resource in animal models that can “monitor chemical alterations caused by traumatic brain injury and identify medical markers of brain metastasis with great accuracy.
The work has been carried out by the German consortium , NanoBright, in which two Hispanic groups participate, the one led by , Liset Menéndez de la Prida , at the , Neuronal Transistors Laboratory of the Cajal Institute , of the CSIC, and the , Brain Metastasis Group , of the CNIO directed by , Manuel Valiente. Both organizations have been involved in the medical research conducted by NanoBright, while laboratories in France like the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel and the Italian Institute of Technology have developed the measurement.
Using light to scan the brains without altering it formerly
It is not new to use light to activate or record mental functions. For instance, the so-called implantable technique enables the monitoring of individual cells ‘ activity with light. To achieve this, however, the cells must be given a gene that causes them to be light sensitive.
With the new technologies that NanoBright has just released, it is possible to research the mind without altering it in any way, which is a model shift in medical research.
The new molecular lantern is based on vibrating spectroscopy, a special feature of light, and makes use of the Raman effect.
” Light communicates with molecules in a way that depends on their content and chemical framework,” according to the statement.
” This scattered produces a different message, or variety, that acts as a chemical fingerprint, providing detailed information about the composition of the light tissue”, explain Liset M. de la Prida from CSIC.
We may detect any chemical change caused by a pathology or injury in the brain.
It is not necessary to alter the brain’s normal condition because this technology allows us to analyze it in its natural state.
” As was the situation with the technology used up until now, it also makes it possible to examine any type of brain structure, including those that have been genetically altered or marked.”
According to Manuel Valiente from the CNIO,” We can see any chemical change in the mind when there is a pathology with vibratory spectroscopy.”
Raman spectroscopy is now used in neurosurgery, but in a less invasive and precise way.
” There have been reports of its use when operating on mental cancers in people,’ says Valiente. When the majority of the tumor has been surgically removed, it is possible to use a Raman spectra sensor to check whether tumor cells continue to reside in the tumor.
” That is because it is only used when the mind is already big enough and the hole is now open.” However, these comparatively large “molecular lanterns” are incompatible with less restrictive use in life animal versions.
One of the goals for the CNIO team is to determine whether the data gathered by the sensor allows “differentiating various biomedical entities, such as the types of metastases according to their genetic profiles, by their main origin, or from different types of brain tumors.”
searching for medical symbols using artificial intelligence
The Cajal Institute team has used the method to examine the epileptogenic regions present in traumatized brains.
According to their relationship with a tumor or trauma, we were able to discover various vibrational profiles in the same brain areas that are prone to epileptic seizures.
This suggests that the chemical shadows of these regions are affected separately and can be used to distinguish between different compulsive companies using automated classification systems, including artificial intelligence, explains Liset M. de la Prida.
The use of vibrational spectroscopy and other techniques to record brain activity and advanced computational analysis with artificial intelligence will lead to the creation of new high-precision diagnostic markers, according to CSIC researcher Liset M. de la Prida.
About this neurotech, brain cancer, and AI research news
Author: Pilar Quijada
Source: CSIC
Contact: Pilar Quijada – CSIC
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Closed access.
” Vibrational fiber photometry: label-free and reporter-free minimally invasive Raman spectroscopy deep in the mouse brain” by Liset Menéndez de la Prida et al. Nature Methods
Abstract
Vibrational fiber photometry: label-free and reporter-free minimally invasive Raman spectroscopy deep in the mouse brain
A rapidly expanding set of genetically encoded molecular reporters is transforming neuroscience, resulting in the development of optical methods to monitor neural activity.
However, the field still requires robust and label-free technologies to monitor the multifaceted biomolecular changes accompanying brain development, aging or disease.
Vibrant fiber photometry has been developed as a low-invasive method for label-free monitoring of the biomolecular content of arbitrarily deep areas of the mouse brain in vivo through spontaneous Raman spectroscopy.
We can study the cytoarchitecture of the mouse brain, study the molecular changes brought on by traumatic brain injuries, and identify brain metastasis markers with high accuracy using a tapered fiber probe as thin as 1 m at its tip.
Our approach, which introduces a deep learning algorithm to suppress probe background, is seen as a promising addition to the existing set of tools for the optical interrogation of neural function, with application to fundamental and preclinical investigations of the brain and other organs.
