On-Demand Bioresorbable OptoElectronic System for In-Vivo and In-Situ Monitoring of Chemotherapeutic Drugs

Introduction

We envision a radically new technology for in-vivo bioresorbable chemical sensing, where optical devices, power and light sources, and synthetic receptors—made out of materials that completely dissolve with biologically benign byproducts in biofluids—will be developed and integrated together.

System Design

The sensing system, the size of 1 EuroCent, will be coated by a long-lived biocompatible polymer designed with on-demand degradation. It will then be implanted in the body to monitor in-vivo, in-situ, and in real-time a chemotherapeutic drug, doxorubicin, commonly used to treat cancer.

Dissolution Process

The system is then fully and safely RESORBed once no longer needed, using an external temperature trigger that initiates the dissolution of the protecting coating and, in turn, of the system. This process avoids device-retrieval surgery that may cause tissue lesion or infection.

Objectives

The general objective is to demonstrate:

1. Fabrication
2. Operation (2 months) in-vivo and in real-time
3. Dissolution of such a bioresorbable chemical sensing system for the detection of doxorubicin in an animal model.

This will break new ground in in-situ monitoring of chemotherapeutic drugs, enabling for the first time a fine-tuning of the drug dose at the tumor site, thereby increasing patient survival rates.

Risk Management

Being aware of the project risks, we have broken down the general objective into different specific objectives. We have identified a set of Key Performance Indicators, alternative material synthesis/device fabrication techniques, and mitigation measures to tackle major risks.

Future Implications

The RESORB technology truly represents the foundation of a future technology for personalized medicine. It enables addressing a number of medical issues for which continuous and localized monitoring of specific analytes (i.e., biomarkers and drugs) in-vivo for a prescribed time is of chief importance. Examples include:

• Acute trauma treatment
• Post-surgery sepsis
• Drug therapeutic profiling

These are all instances for which ex-situ analysis of biofluids has proved to be not fully adequate for clinical needs.