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New sensors may help monitor dopamine-related diseases

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Theo West
New sensors may help monitor dopamine-related diseases

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created sensors that can monitor dopamine in the brain for up to a year.


The new probes could make it possible to keep tabs on individuals who suffer from dopamine-related illnesses including Parkinson's disease, depression, and schizophrenia Market.


Dopamine is a signaling chemical that is essential for managing our movement and regulating our mood.

Standard carbon electrode devices for measuring dopamine are only effective for a single day because they produce scar tissue that makes it difficult to trace the neurotransmitter molecule.


The MIT research team developed and approved microfabricated sensors for monitoring dopamine levels in the striatum of the brain in 2015. These probes are so little that the researchers were able to insert as many as 16 of them in various striatal locations.


In the most recent investigation, the team assessed how well these probes tracked over time and produced reliable day-to-day measurements.

It was found that the novel sensors were essentially immune system-invisible, even over extended periods of time, preventing the development of scar tissue.


The small probes provided reliable measurements for up to 393 days when tested on animals.

This is essential if you want to comprehend how these signals mediate certain diseases or disorders, according to MIT postdoc Helen Schwerdt.


"Nobody has ever demonstrated that these sensors function for longer than a few months before. This gives us a lot of hope that these sensors may someday be practical for human usage.

The sensors, which transmit electrical impulses into the brain, may help doctors treat Parkinson's patients more effectively, in their opinion.

It could be easier to apply the stimulation selectively if the patients' dopamine levels were being monitored.

The use of these sensors to measure additional brain chemicals and electrical impulses that are known to be aberrant in specific disorders is now being researched by researchers.

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