A new injectable, temporary pacemaker could help correct a heart arrhythmia in an emergency. This nanoparticle gel can regulate the heart’s electrical signals for up to five days before dissolving harmlessly in the body.
Electrical pulses keep the heart pumping at a steady rhythm, but sometimes it can get out of whack and beat too fast, too slow, or irregularly. This is called arrhythmia, and if left untreated – especially in emergency situations – it can cause a range of complications and potentially be fatal. Defibrillators and surgically implanted pacemakers can get the rhythms back on track, but those aren’t always on hand.
Researchers at Lund University have now developed a much more portable alternative that could eventually become a staple of first aid kits. It’s essentially a syringe with an ultrathin needle – thinner than a human hair – that injects a solution containing nanoparticles. When this comes into contact with tissue, it forms an electrically conductive polymer hydrogel.
The idea is that when needed, this can be injected into the chest of a patient with arrhythmia, where it forms a kind of electrode around the heart. The tiny pinprick site of the injection acts as a point of contact for an external device, such as a mobile phone, the team says. This allows ECG measurements to be taken, as well as stimulating the heart with low-power electricity to regulate the heartbeat.
The team says that the nanoparticle gel should be able to correct arrhythmia for up to five days, which should provide enough time for the patient to make it to a hospital for more permanent treatment. And thankfully, the gel is excreted naturally by the body after this, so it doesn’t need to be surgically removed.
The injectable pacemaker was tested in zebrafish and chicken embryos, and was found to work as designed. The gel was of a consistency that let it adhere to the heart, without negatively affecting its beating. Importantly, the team noted no toxicity or behavioral changes from the test subjects while the gel was in place, nor after it had dissolved.
The next steps are to test it on larger animals like pigs, which are more human-like. Ultimately, the team plans to develop a mobile app that can run the pacemaker.
The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Source: Lund University