Medical Design Briefs - January 2022 - 34

The team's delivery approach, from
local to systemic, is very different from
conventional treatment that uses only
a systemic administration method, says
Tong. And it also avoids antibodies
causing toxicities before reaching the
tumor.
Tong says the research found that
measuring tumor electrical signals
(tumor impedance) using the new
device is rapid and allows real-time monitoring
of tumor growth, which differs
greatly from conventional contrast-agent
based tumor imaging therapies.
" When a tumor grows up, the impedance
reading correspondingly increases;
when tumor sizes decrease because of
the antibodies treatment, we also find
the impedance decreased, " Jia says.
A paper explaining their work,
" Implantable optical fibers for immuno -
therapeutics delivery and tumor impedance
measurement, " was recently pubMiniature
fiber device developed in Virginia Tech's College of Engineering could make cancer
immunotherapy more effective. (Credit: Tonia Moxley/Virginia Tech)
an expert in immunology, joined the
researchers.
By using electrode-embedded optical
fibers, which have both local delivery and
measurement capabilities that span the
course of a few weeks, and combining
local immune checkpoint blockade antibodies
delivery with photodynamic therapy,
the researchers have been able to elicit
a sustained anti-tumor immunity with
complete tumor shrinkage in multiple
tumor models. To test whether the cured
mice have " immune memory " against
tumors, the researchers challenged the
cured mice by injecting tumor cells into
these mice, and they found that none of
the cured mice had tumor regrowth.
" We can infuse antibodies through our
miniature fiber to the tumor to activate T
cells around tumor cells and further elicit
anti-tumor immunity by recruiting more
T cells to the tumor bed, " says Jia. " This
will eventually produce strong and
durable anti-tumor immunity as we see
the accumulated memory T cells in
tumors and lymph nodes. "
lished in Nature Communications.
" Jia and I began this
research as
young, enthusiastic faculty members at
Virginia Tech who were hopeful but not
really sure of the result, " says Tong. " We
are very pleased with the contribution
our collaboration has made to achieving
better results for patients undergoing
cancer immunotherapy and we encourage
other young professors in the
College of Engineering to join forces
that could open up new possibilities in
the biomedical engineering field. "
This article was written by Barbara L.
Micale, Virginia Tech. For more information,
visit https://vtx.vt.edu.
New Imaging Technology Reduces Need for Skin Biopsies
A deep-learning framework
transforms images of
intact skin acquired by
an emerging noninvasive
optical technology.
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA
Instead of surgically removing a sample
of skin, sending it to a lab and waiting several
days for results, your dermatologist
takes pictures of a suspicious-looking
lesion and quickly produces a detailed,
microscopic image of the skin.
This could become routine in clinics,
the result of a new " virtual histology " tech34
Cov
nology
being developed by researchers at
the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering
and the David Geffen School of Medicine
at UCLA, according to an article in Light:
Science & Applications.
" This process bypasses several standard
steps typically used for diagnosis -
including skin biopsy,
tissue fixation,
processing, sectioning and histochemical
staining. Images appear like biopsied,
histochemically stained skin sections
imaged on microscope slides, " says
the study's senior author, Aydogan
Ozcan, Chancellor's Professor and
Volgenau Chair for Engineering
Innovation of the electrical and computer
engineering department at UCLA
Samueli.
www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
ToC
The technology, which has been in
research and development for more
than three years, may provide a new
avenue for rapid diagnosis of malignant
skin tumors, reducing the number of
unnecessary invasive skin biopsies and
allowing earlier diagnosis of skin cancer.
Previously, this technology has only
been applied to microscopy slides that
contained unstained tissue, acquired
through a biopsy. This report is the first
to apply virtual histology to intact,
unbiopsied tissue.
" The current standard for diagnosing
skin diseases, including skin cancer,
relies on invasive biopsy and histopathological
evaluation. For patients, this
often leads to unnecessary biopsies and
Medical Design Briefs, January 2022
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Medical Design Briefs - January 2022

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