A novel neuropathic pain treatment: achieving neuronal inhibition with a split ring resonator
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Abstract
Neuropathic pain is commonly the result of lesions, nervous dysfunction, and/or surgical injury, debilitating a significant portion of the population through conditions like multiple sclerosis or sciatica . Neuromodulatory treatments to address false, exaggerated, or unusual signals focus on areas upstream of the dysfunctional site, but are often some combination of highly invasive, wired power, and stimulation rather than inhibition. This study was performed with a microwave-coupled split ring resonator (SRR), a cornerstone of metamaterials manipulations, to achieve minimally invasive, wireless, submillimeter precision neural inhibition for potential pain applications with no supplementary modifications. Procambarus clarkii was used as a microwave-compatible ex vivo testing platform with extracellular neuronal electrophysiology capturing multiple axons simultaneously. A custom analysis suite was also created to determine changes in action potential characteristics as a metric for successful inhibition. The results of this thesis lay foundations for further study on neuromodulation with the microwave SRR and highlight necessary changes for future in vivo use.
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Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International