RSC Advances Blog

A lack of clinically available antidotes for general anaesthesia has prompted a team of researchers in China and Canada to explore the potential of a macrocyclic compound for halting anaesthesia in zebrafish. General anaesthetics put patients into reversible comas before surgery, but their effects can linger beyond their usefulness, resulting in neurotoxicity and cardiotoxicity, or in death, so if an equivalent molecule could be developed for humans it could save lives.

Cucurbit[n]urils are macrocycles that can inhibit the bioactivity of certain drugs by complexing and encapsulating them to neutralise their effects. Now, Ruibing Wang and co-workers at the University of Macao, China, and Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, have shown that cucurbit[7]uril can encapsulate the anaesthetic tricaine within its lipophilic cavity. Tricaine acts as a general anaesthetic in cold-blooded animals and fish; in zebrafish it blocks ion channels within nerve membranes. Cucurbit[7]uril acts as a competitive receptor to remove tricaine from these channels and inhibit its anaesthetic properties. The resulting concentration gradient encourages any remaining tricaine to migrate away from the ion channel junction and into the plasma, to be snapped up by further host macrocycles.

To read the full article visit Chemistry World.

In vivo reversal of general anesthesia by cucurbit[7]uril with zebrafish models
Huanxian Chen, Judy Y. W. Chan, Shengke Li, Jessica J. Liu, Ian W. Wyman, Simon M. Y. Lee, Donal H. Macartney and Ruibing Wang
RSC Adv., 2015,5, 63745-63752
DOI: 10.1039/C5RA09406B

What is pain? It can be described as a feeling. It alerts us to damage, and its onset can help to protect us from hurting ourselves again or further.

According to the T-800 of the Terminator series, pain is data, and there are many scientists out there who would agree; however, it would have been an entirely different film if Arnold Schwarzenegger had threatened people with processing proteomics analyses.

While making robots ‘feel’ pain may seem the stuff of sci-fi movies, Yeri Jeong and co-workers show us in their recent publication in RSC Advances, that it is a very legitimate line of research. If robots can feel pain, it can improve their range of applications, especially in harsh environments as they may engage a protective mode.

The research team, based in Korea and the UK, have created a nanowire array that can detect signals based on pattern analysis and pressure, for example, the sharp point of a pencil would be more painful than the soft end with the eraser. The electromechanical structure used comprising flexible ZnO nanowires can mimic the different deformations of the skin to generate a signal. Once that signal goes above a threshold pressure level, it yields an artificial pain signal based on both pattern analysis and force.

They tested the array with a variety of different objects and pressure levels with an earplug and a pen lid, amongst other objects of torture. The array produced a ‘pain’ signal when stabbed with a sharp object at high force, in a quick response time. Yeri Jeong said ‘I’ll be back’ with more sensors – ok, I made that bit up but they do write that the simple design may find application in various devices and the robot industry.

To find out more, click below to read the full article in RSC Advances.

Psychological tactile sensor structure based on piezoelectric nanowire cell arrays, Yeri Jeong, Minkyung Sim, Jeong Hee Shin, Ji-Woong Choi, Jung Inn Sohn, Seung Nam Cha, Hongsoo Choi, Cheil Moon and Jae Eun Jang, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 40363-40368 (DOI: 10.1039/C5RA05744B)

Sarah Brown is a guest web-writer for RSC Advances. Sarah hung up her lab coat after finishing her PhD and post-doctorate in nanotechnology for diagnostics and therapeutics and now works in academic publishing. When not trying to explain science through ridiculous analogies, you can often find her crocheting, baking or climbing, but not all at once.