Qiao Guanda, Gulisashvili David, Jablonska Anna, Zhao Guiling, Janowski Miroslaw, Walczak Piotr, Liang Yajie
Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Laboratory of Molecular Cardiology, Department of Physiology, Center for Biomedical Engineering and Technology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Neuroprotection. 2023 Sep;1(1):58-65. doi: 10.1002/nep3.20. Epub 2023 Jun 19.
Intracerebral delivery of agents in liquid form is usually achieved through commercially available and durable metal needles. However, their size and texture may contribute to mechanical brain damage. Glass pipettes with a thin tip may significantly reduce injection-associated brain damage but require access to prohibitively expensive programmable pipette pullers. This study is to remove the economic barrier to the application of minimally invasive delivery of therapeutics to the brain, such as chemical compounds, viral vectors, and cells.
We took advantage of the rapid development of free educational online resources and emerging low-cost 3D printers by designing an affordable pipette puller (APP) to remove the cost obstacle.
We showed that our APP could produce glass pipettes with a sharp tip opening down to 20 μm or less, which is sufficiently thin for the delivery of therapeutics into the brain. A pipeline from pipette pulling to brain injection using low-cost and open-source equipment was established to facilitate the application of the APP.
In the spirit of frugal science, our device may democratize glass pipette-puling and substantially promote the application of minimally invasive and precisely controlled delivery of therapeutics to the brain for finding more effective therapies of brain diseases.
以液体形式向脑内递送药物通常通过市售的耐用金属针来实现。然而，它们的尺寸和质地可能会导致机械性脑损伤。尖端较细的玻璃移液管可能会显著减少注射相关的脑损伤，但需要使用极其昂贵的可编程移液管拉制器。本研究旨在消除将治疗剂（如化合物、病毒载体和细胞）微创递送至脑内应用的经济障碍。
我们利用免费在线教育资源的快速发展以及新兴的低成本3D打印机，设计了一种经济实惠的移液管拉制器（APP）以消除成本障碍。
我们表明，我们的APP能够生产尖端开口低至20μm或更小的玻璃移液管，其细到足以将治疗剂递送至脑内。建立了一条使用低成本和开源设备从移液管拉制到脑内注射的流程，以促进APP的应用。
本着节俭科学的精神，我们的设备可能会使玻璃移液管拉制技术普及，并极大地促进将治疗剂微创且精确控制地递送至脑内的应用，以找到更有效的脑部疾病治疗方法。
