End-to-End Noise Model for Intra-Body Terahertz Nanoscale Communication

Continuous wave irradiation at 0.1 terahertz facilitates transmembrane transport of small molecules

The bioeffects of terahertz (THz) radiation received growing attention because of its influence on the interactions between biomolecules. Our work aimed to investigate the effects of THz irradiation on cell membrane, especially cell membrane permeability. We found that 0.1 THz irradiation promoted the endocytosis of FM4-64-labeled cells and the inhibition of dynamin attenuated but did not fully abolish the THz promoted endocytosis. Moreover, 0.1 THz irradiation also promoted the transmembrane of the rhodamine, as well as the chemical compounds GDC0941 and H89, evidenced by the confocal microscope observation and the western blotting analysis, respectively. These findings demonstrated 0.1 THz irradiation facilitated the transmembrane transport of small molecules by promoting both the cellular endocytosis and the diffusion process. Our study provided direct evidence that THz could affect the cell membrane permeability, broadened the THz affected cellular physiological processes, and implied its potential application in regulating the cell membrane functions.

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THz irradiation enhances endocytic activity of neuronal cells

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THz irradiation increases the permeation of rhodamine derivatives into cells

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THz irradiation promotes the cellular uptake of small drugs GDC0941 and H89

Body-Centric Terahertz Networks: Prospects and Challenges

Following recent advancements in Terahertz (THz) technology, THz communications are currently being celebrated as key enablers for various applications in future generations of communication networks. While typical communication use cases are over medium-range air interfaces, the inherently small beamwidths and transceiver footprints at THz frequencies support nano-communication paradigms. In particular, the use of the THz band for in-body and on-body communications has been gaining attention recently. By exploiting the accurate THz sensing and imaging capabilities, body-centric THz biomedical applications can transcend the limitations of molecular, acoustic, and radio-frequency solutions. In this paper, we study the use of the THz band for body-centric networks, by surveying works on THz device technologies, channel and noise modeling, modulation schemes, and networking topologies. We also promote THz sensing and imaging applications in the healthcare sector, especially for detecting zootonic viruses such as Coronavirus. We present several open research problems for body-centric THz networks.

Information Rates of Controlled Protein Interactions Using Terahertz Communication

In this work, we present a paradigm bridging electromagnetic (EM) and molecular communication through a stimuli-responsive intra-body model. It has been established that protein molecules, which play a key role in governing cell behavior, can be selectively stimulated using Terahertz (THz) band frequencies. By triggering protein vibrational modes using THz waves, we induce changes in protein conformation, resulting in the activation of a controlled cascade of biochemical and biomechanical events. To analyze such an interaction, we formulate a communication system composed of a nanoantenna transmitter and a protein receiver. We adopt a Markov chain model to account for protein stochasticity with transition rates governed by the nanoantenna force. Both two-state and multi-state protein models are presented to depict different biological configurations. Closed form expressions for the mutual information of each scenario is derived and maximized to find the capacity between the input nanoantenna force and the protein state. The results we obtain indicate that controlled protein signaling provides a communication platform for information transmission between the nanoantenna and the protein with a clear physical significance. The analysis reported in this work should further research into the EM-based control of protein networks.