Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106-1712, USA.
Neurosci Lett. 2012 Jun 25;519(2):147-54. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2012.01.058. Epub 2012 Feb 4.
Engineering is the art of taking what we know and using it to solve problems. As engineers, we build tool chests of approaches; we attempt to learn as much as possible about the problem at hand, and then we design, build, and test our approaches to see how they impact the system. The challenge of applying this approach to the central nervous system (CNS) is that we often do not know the details of what is needed from the biological side. New therapeutic options for treating the CNS range from new biomaterials to make scaffolds, to novel drug-delivery techniques, to functional electrical stimulation. However, the reality is that translating these new therapies and making them widely available to patients requires collaborations between scientists, engineers, clinicians, and patients to have the greatest chance of success. Here we discuss a variety of new treatment strategies and explore the pragmatic challenges involved with engineering therapies in the CNS.
工程学是一门将我们所知道的知识应用于解决问题的艺术。作为工程师，我们构建了方法工具箱；我们试图尽可能多地了解手头的问题，然后设计、构建和测试我们的方法，以观察它们对系统的影响。将这种方法应用于中枢神经系统（CNS）的挑战在于，我们通常不知道从生物学角度来看需要什么细节。治疗中枢神经系统的新治疗选择包括新型生物材料来制造支架，新型药物输送技术，以及功能性电刺激。然而，现实情况是，要将这些新疗法转化并广泛应用于患者，就需要科学家、工程师、临床医生和患者之间的合作，才有最大的成功机会。在这里，我们讨论了各种新的治疗策略，并探讨了在中枢神经系统中进行工程治疗所涉及的实际挑战。
