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Sea anemone stings make a ‘hypodermic’ skin cream
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Stings from the sea give a pain-free kick to skin cream
needed. That might be a sample of fluid from the lungs of a victim of drowning, or a piece of liver to look for signs of disease or toxins. Such biopsies normally require someone to expose their hand to the scanner’s X-rays. A robot has no such worries. And, like the robots used in surgery on the living, it is more than capable of using small tools with great precision. Despite its impressive dexterity, Virtibot wasn’t built with surgery in mind. Robots used for precision surgery on the living must let surgeons maintain absolute control at all times, for safety reasons. Once given a task, Virtibot can
In 19 cases, 3D surface scans were used to make virtual reconstructions of the attack or accident accurate enough to be admissible in the Swiss courts. However, the president of the UK’s Royal College of Pathologists, Peter Furness, says that much longer term comparisons of virtopsies with conventional procedures are still needed. “The circumstances where this might be valuable are not well defined, the reliability of the approach is unclear and the cost can be considerable,” he says, adding that studies to work out just when a conventional autopsy is essential are under way. ■
Applying the cream to the skin triggers the stinging cells. In firing, they act like tiny pumps, drawing in more of the drug from the cream and sending it through the needle. Each “needle” is just a few micrometres thick, making the injection painless. One square centimetre of creamcoated skin can contain as many as a million tiny needles, of which onethird will be pointing the right way to fire their needles into the skin. Last week, NanoCyte concluded
“Applying the cream to the skin triggers the stinging cells, which send the drug through the needle” phase II clinical trials in the US of a cream containing lidocaine, a local anaesthetic used by dentists. The firm hopes to launch cosmetics, such as “anti-ageing” treatments, in 2010. Preliminary work with mice suggests anemone stings can also inject insulin, says Daniely. “It is exciting that this approach has reached phase II trials,” says Mark Prausnitz, a drug delivery expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Pharmaceutical applications are more strictly regulated than cosmetic ones, though, he points out. Colin Barras ■
NANOCYTE
MIXING stinging cells from sea anemones into skin cream sounds like a bad practical joke. But anaesthetic cream that uses this novel approach to painlessly inject a painkiller is moving through clinical trials. Anemone stings could also offer needle-free insulin to diabetics. The stinging cells, or cnidocysts, of sea anemones, jellyfish and other cnidarians work like tiny harpoons when triggered by physical contact. They shoot out a hollow thread that delivers poison into the unfortunate victim through a sharp tip. NanoCyte, based in Or Akiva, Israel, uses stings “harvested” from tank-Scanning, not scratching, the surface-) dwelling Aiptasia diaphana sea anemones, native to the Red and entire body, providing a way to Mediterranean seas. The firm won’t be left largely to its own devices. see damage or disease in organs “These people are already dead, say how, but it can provoke the anemones into releasing filaments or bones. In the case of a car-crash so there is no way we can injure stuffed with stinging cells, which can victim, being able to see the them further,” says Ebert. “That be gathered without harming the patterns of breakage, and damage means we can use a cheaper animals. “It’s a bit like milking a cow,” to bones, can also help work out industrial robot, drawn from says Yaron Daniely, CEO of NanoCyte. exactly what happened. the automobile industry.” The stinging cells are then Finally, after analysis of the So far, Virtibot has aided processed to denature and extract 3D model and the internal and virtopsies in 52 real cases, their toxic proteins. That, and the fact external scans, a needle biopsy including 26 road deaths, 10 by that the species is not toxic to humans, can be used to gather samples impacts from a blunt object, six makes them safe, says Daniely. from inside the body if further knifings, five shootings, and two The stinging cells are carefully information is required. Wielding throttlings (The International mixed into a cream containing the a fine needle, the system uses live Journal of Medical Robotics and drug to be injected into the skin, CT-scan images to grab a biopsy Computer Assisted Surgery, some of which diffuses into the cells. sample from precisely where it is DOI: 10.1002/rcs.285).
–Try milking that– 24 October 2009 | NewScientist | 23
Stings from the sea give a pain-free kick to skin cream
needed. That might be a sample of fluid from the lungs of a victim of drowning, or a piece of liver to look for signs of disease or toxins. Such biopsies normally require someone to expose their hand to the scanner’s X-rays. A robot has no such worries. And, like the robots used in surgery on the living, it is more than capable of using small tools with great precision. Despite its impressive dexterity, Virtibot wasn’t built with surgery in mind. Robots used for precision surgery on the living must let surgeons maintain absolute control at all times, for safety reasons. Once given a task, Virtibot can
In 19 cases, 3D surface scans were used to make virtual reconstructions of the attack or accident accurate enough to be admissible in the Swiss courts. However, the president of the UK’s Royal College of Pathologists, Peter Furness, says that much longer term comparisons of virtopsies with conventional procedures are still needed. “The circumstances where this might be valuable are not well defined, the reliability of the approach is unclear and the cost can be considerable,” he says, adding that studies to work out just when a conventional autopsy is essential are under way. ■
Applying the cream to the skin triggers the stinging cells. In firing, they act like tiny pumps, drawing in more of the drug from the cream and sending it through the needle. Each “needle” is just a few micrometres thick, making the injection painless. One square centimetre of creamcoated skin can contain as many as a million tiny needles, of which onethird will be pointing the right way to fire their needles into the skin. Last week, NanoCyte concluded
“Applying the cream to the skin triggers the stinging cells, which send the drug through the needle” phase II clinical trials in the US of a cream containing lidocaine, a local anaesthetic used by dentists. The firm hopes to launch cosmetics, such as “anti-ageing” treatments, in 2010. Preliminary work with mice suggests anemone stings can also inject insulin, says Daniely. “It is exciting that this approach has reached phase II trials,” says Mark Prausnitz, a drug delivery expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Pharmaceutical applications are more strictly regulated than cosmetic ones, though, he points out. Colin Barras ■
NANOCYTE
MIXING stinging cells from sea anemones into skin cream sounds like a bad practical joke. But anaesthetic cream that uses this novel approach to painlessly inject a painkiller is moving through clinical trials. Anemone stings could also offer needle-free insulin to diabetics. The stinging cells, or cnidocysts, of sea anemones, jellyfish and other cnidarians work like tiny harpoons when triggered by physical contact. They shoot out a hollow thread that delivers poison into the unfortunate victim through a sharp tip. NanoCyte, based in Or Akiva, Israel, uses stings “harvested” from tank-Scanning, not scratching, the surface-) dwelling Aiptasia diaphana sea anemones, native to the Red and entire body, providing a way to Mediterranean seas. The firm won’t be left largely to its own devices. see damage or disease in organs “These people are already dead, say how, but it can provoke the anemones into releasing filaments or bones. In the case of a car-crash so there is no way we can injure stuffed with stinging cells, which can victim, being able to see the them further,” says Ebert. “That be gathered without harming the patterns of breakage, and damage means we can use a cheaper animals. “It’s a bit like milking a cow,” to bones, can also help work out industrial robot, drawn from says Yaron Daniely, CEO of NanoCyte. exactly what happened. the automobile industry.” The stinging cells are then Finally, after analysis of the So far, Virtibot has aided processed to denature and extract 3D model and the internal and virtopsies in 52 real cases, their toxic proteins. That, and the fact external scans, a needle biopsy including 26 road deaths, 10 by that the species is not toxic to humans, can be used to gather samples impacts from a blunt object, six makes them safe, says Daniely. from inside the body if further knifings, five shootings, and two The stinging cells are carefully information is required. Wielding throttlings (The International mixed into a cream containing the a fine needle, the system uses live Journal of Medical Robotics and drug to be injected into the skin, CT-scan images to grab a biopsy Computer Assisted Surgery, some of which diffuses into the cells. sample from precisely where it is DOI: 10.1002/rcs.285).
–Try milking that– 24 October 2009 | NewScientist | 23