Real life is getting closer to being like a comic book, as U.S. researchers are working on an implant that could give people the same healing powers possessed by some of the world's most popular superheroes.
The device is being designed to keep track of organs in the body and heal them whenever they become infected or injured, according to The Financial Express. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will develop the device under a program called Electrical Prescriptions (ElectRx).
The agency said the implant has the potential to replace pharmaceutical drugs and serve as a new way to treat illnesses.
Doug Weber, program director for DARPA's biological technologies office, said the implant would be similar to a small, intelligent pacemaker, and that it would be put in the body to continuously monitor a person's condition and give the nerves the stimulus needed to keep the organ working and healthy, Live Science reported.
"The technology DARPA plans to develop through the ElectRx program could fundamentally change the manner in which doctors diagnose, monitor and treat injury and illness," Weber said.
The concept for the device is based on neuromodulation, a biological process that involves the peripheral nervous system, which is made up of the nerves connecting every other part of the body to the brain and spinal cord, The Financial Express reported. The system keeps track of internal organs manages the body's responses to disease and infection. DARPA said this process can be interrupted when a person gets sick or suffers from an injury.
The agency added that it could manage neuromodulation with help from the implant when it is electrically charged. The device could use electric impulses to stimulate nerve patterns that help the body heal itself. Unstable nerve stimulus patterns that put sick people in even worse conditions could be kept from causing harm.
DARPA is looking to make the device small enough that only a needle would be needed to implant it in the body, Live Science reported. The agency said the small size would present several advantages, such as not requiring the invasive surgery that larger implants do, being placed exactly where it needs to be at nerve endings, and diminishing the side effects brought about by implants that don't send electric impulses directly into nerve channels.
The implant has the potential to treat a variety of conditions, from inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, to mental disorders like epilepsy, brain injury, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
