Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center

The study uses spatial proteomics to assess tissue around non-functional intracortical microelectrodes implanted for four weeks in mice, measuring neuronal integrity, immune-cell activation and local cytokine expression around probes coated with drug-loaded, controlled-release titanium dioxide nanotube array (TNA) coatings. The authors note that blood-brain barrier disruption can translocate gut-derived bacteria to the implant site and sustain chronic inflammation, and that the TNA coating's therapeutic loading and controlled release further damp residual neuroinflammation. They conclude that TNA offers a multifunctional, tunable interface for locally regulating the neuroimmune microenvironment, a step toward long-term reliable intracortical recordings.

Researchers transferred dexamethasone-loaded titania nanotube arrays (TNA) onto a mechanically adaptive polymer nanocomposite (NC) substrate and, in a mouse model, compared four implants — silicon, NC, TNA-NC Empty and TNA-NC DEX (10 mice per group) — for neuroinflammation around intracortical microelectrodes at 2 and 4 weeks. At 2 weeks the gene-expression profiles were broadly similar, reflecting an early acute injury response; by 4 weeks the patterns diverged, with NC-based implants showing fewer differentially expressed neuroinflammatory genes than rigid silicon, led by TNA-NC Empty, while the dexamethasone group showed no additional benefit, suggesting drug delivery still needs optimization. The authors conclude that adding a TNA layer to flexible materials promotes resolution of the neuroinflammatory response at 4 weeks.