Biomechanical characterization of isolated epineurial and perineurial membranes of rabbit sciatic nerve

Bioelectronic Medicine: a multidisciplinary roadmap from biophysics to precision therapies

Bioelectronic Medicine stands as an emerging field that rapidly evolves and offers distinctive clinical benefits, alongside unique challenges. It consists of the modulation of the nervous system by precise delivery of electrical current for the treatment of clinical conditions, such as post-stroke movement recovery or drug-resistant disorders. The unquestionable clinical impact of Bioelectronic Medicine is underscored by the successful translation to humans in the last decades, and the long list of preclinical studies. Given the emergency of accelerating the progress in new neuromodulation treatments (i.e., drug-resistant hypertension, autoimmune and degenerative diseases), collaboration between multiple fields is imperative. This work intends to foster multidisciplinary work and bring together different fields to provide the fundamental basis underlying Bioelectronic Medicine. In this review we will go from the biophysics of the cell membrane, which we consider the inner core of neuromodulation, to patient care. We will discuss the recently discovered mechanism of neurotransmission switching and how it will impact neuromodulation design, and we will provide an update on neuronal and glial basis in health and disease. The advances in biomedical technology have facilitated the collection of large amounts of data, thereby introducing new challenges in data analysis. We will discuss the current approaches and challenges in high throughput data analysis, encompassing big data, networks, artificial intelligence, and internet of things. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the electrochemical properties of neural interfaces, along with the integration of biocompatible and reliable materials and compliance with biomedical regulations for translational applications. Preclinical validation is foundational to the translational process, and we will discuss the critical aspects of such animal studies. Finally, we will focus on the patient point-of-care and challenges in neuromodulation as the ultimate goal of bioelectronic medicine. This review is a call to scientists from different fields to work together with a common endeavor: accelerate the decoding and modulation of the nervous system in a new era of therapeutic possibilities.

Regenerative capacity of neural tissue scales with changes in tissue mechanics post injury

Spinal cord injuries have devastating consequences for humans, as mammalian neurons of the central nervous system (CNS) cannot regenerate. In the peripheral nervous system (PNS), however, neurons may regenerate to restore lost function following injury. While mammalian CNS tissue softens after injury, how PNS tissue mechanics changes in response to mechanical trauma is currently poorly understood. Here we characterised mechanical rat nerve tissue properties before and after in vivo crush and transection injuries using atomic force microscopy-based indentation measurements. Unlike CNS tissue, PNS tissue significantly stiffened after both types of tissue damage. This nerve tissue stiffening strongly correlated with an increase in collagen I levels. Schwann cells, which crucially support PNS regeneration, became more motile and proliferative on stiffer substrates in vitro, suggesting that changes in tissue stiffness may play a key role in facilitating or impeding nervous system regeneration.

Biomechanics Characterization of Autonomic and Somatic Nerves by High Dynamic Closed-Loop MEMS force sensing

The biomechanics of peripheral nerves are determined by the blood-nerve barrier (BNB), together with the epineural barrier, extracellular matrix, and axonal composition, which maintain structural and functional stability. These elements are often ignored in the fabrication of penetrating devices, and the implant process is traumatic due to the mechanical distress, compromising the function of neuroprosthesis for sensory-motor restoration in amputees. Miniaturization of penetrating interfaces offers the unique opportunity of decoding individual nerve fibers associated to specific functions, however, a main issue for their implant is the lack of high-precision standardization of insertion forces. Current automatized electromechanical force sensors are available; however, their sensitivity and range amplitude are limited (i.e. mN), and have been tested only in-vitro. We previously developed a high-precision bi-directional micro-electromechanical force sensor, with a closed-loop mechanism (MEMS-CLFS), that while measuring with high-precision (-211.7μN to 211.5μN with a resolution of 4.74nN), can be used in alive animal. Our technology has an on-chip electrothermal displacement sensor with a shuttle beam displacement amplification mechanism, for large range and high-frequency resolution (dynamic range of 92.9 dB), which eliminates the adverse effect of flexural nonlinearity measurements, observed with other systems, and reduces the mechanical impact on delicate biological tissue. In this work, we use the MEMS-CLFS for in-vivo bidirectional measurement of biomechanics in somatic and autonomic nerves. Furthermore we define the mechanical implications of irrigation and collagen VI in the BNB, which is different for both autonomic and somatic nerves (~ 8.5-8.6 fold density of collagen VI and vasculature CD31+ in the VN vs ScN). This study allowed us to create a mathematical approach to predict insertion forces. Our data highlights the necessity of nerve-customization forces to prevent injury when implanting interfaces, and describes a high precision MEMS technology and mathematical model for their measurements.

Microneurography as a minimally invasive method to assess target engagement during neuromodulation

Objective.Peripheral neural signals recorded during neuromodulation therapies provide insights into local neural target engagement and serve as a sensitive biomarker of physiological effect. Although these applications make peripheral recordings important for furthering neuromodulation therapies, the invasive nature of conventional nerve cuffs and longitudinal intrafascicular electrodes (LIFEs) limit their clinical utility. Furthermore, cuff electrodes typically record clear asynchronous neural activity in small animal models but not in large animal models. Microneurography, a minimally invasive technique, is already used routinely in humans to record asynchronous neural activity in the periphery. However, the relative performance of microneurography microelectrodes compared to cuff and LIFE electrodes in measuring neural signals relevant to neuromodulation therapies is not well understood.Approach.To address this gap, we recorded cervical vagus nerve electrically evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) and spontaneous activity in a human-scaled large animal model-the pig. Additionally, we recorded sensory evoked activity and both invasively and non-invasively evoked CAPs from the great auricular nerve. In aggregate, this study assesses the potential of microneurography electrodes to measure neural activity during neuromodulation therapies with statistically powered and pre-registered outcomes (https://osf.io/y9k6j).Main results.The cuff recorded the largest ECAP signal (p< 0.01) and had the lowest noise floor amongst the evaluated electrodes. Despite the lower signal to noise ratio, microneurography electrodes were able to detect the threshold for neural activation with similar sensitivity to cuff and LIFE electrodes once a dose-response curve was constructed. Furthermore, the microneurography electrodes recorded distinct sensory evoked neural activity.Significance.The results show that microneurography electrodes can measure neural signals relevant to neuromodulation therapies. Microneurography could further neuromodulation therapies by providing a real-time biomarker to guide electrode placement and stimulation parameter selection to optimize local neural fiber engagement and study mechanisms of action.