Harris Alexander R, Ruslim Marko, Xin Huakun, Shen Zhiyi, Liu JingYang, Spencer Tom, Garrett David, Grayden David B, John Sam E
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, 3010, Australia.
School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, 3001, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2025 Mar 20;15(1):9676. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-93941-2.
Recent work has shown the ability to record neural behaviour in pre-clinical studies from an endovascular location for over a year. Previous work on stimulating neural tissue from an endovascular location has also shown motor-evoked responses in sheep. However, endovascular stimulation requires high currents and can result in electrode degradation. This study aimed to modify an endovascular electrode to increase its charge injection capacity for efficacious neural stimulation. The platinum endovascular electrode was modified with platinum black and characterised by electrochemical and microscopic techniques. The stability of the electrode coating was assessed after a 7-day continuous stimulation paradigm. Modelling of the neural activating function was performed for central and peripheral neural anatomy with both electrode materials. Platinum black coatings had a substantially larger electroactive area than uncoated platinum. This resulted in increased electrode admittance, charge storage capacity and charge injection capacity while reducing the total impedance at 10 Hz and polarisation voltage. The coated electrode was comparatively more electrochemically stable than uncoated platinum following the 7-day continuous stimulation protocol. Modelling of the neural activating function indicated a substantial increase in the electrode-neuron distance which could be safely stimulated using platinum black coated electrodes. By comparison of electrochemical response with neural modelling, we have demonstrated the feasibility of safe stimulation of neural tissue using an endovascular neural interface, opening the possibility of a new, minimally invasive neural stimulation paradigm.
最近的研究表明，在临床前研究中能够从血管内位置记录神经行为长达一年以上。先前关于从血管内位置刺激神经组织的研究也在绵羊身上显示出运动诱发电位。然而，血管内刺激需要高电流，并且可能导致电极退化。本研究旨在改进血管内电极，以提高其电荷注入能力，实现有效的神经刺激。用铂黑对铂血管内电极进行修饰，并通过电化学和显微镜技术对其进行表征。在连续7天的刺激模式后评估电极涂层的稳定性。对使用两种电极材料的中枢和外周神经解剖结构进行神经激活功能建模。铂黑涂层的电活性面积比未涂层的铂大得多。这导致电极导纳、电荷存储容量和电荷注入容量增加，同时降低了10Hz时的总阻抗和极化电压。在连续7天的刺激方案后，涂层电极在电化学上比未涂层的铂更稳定。神经激活功能建模表明，使用铂黑涂层电极可以安全刺激的电极-神经元距离大幅增加。通过将电化学响应与神经建模进行比较，我们证明了使用血管内神经接口安全刺激神经组织的可行性，开启了一种新的微创神经刺激模式的可能性。
