Design and Study of Novel Tunable ELF-PEMF System for Therapeutic Applications

ABSTRACT

Microbial infection is a major barrier to wound care and repair process of the cells. Various US-FDA-approved drugs and surgical procedures have been used for wound healing progression. However, the use of these pharmaceutical products has an associated toxicity and may produce harmful side effects. To overcome these problems, researchers worldwide are trying to develop non-invasive wound healing processes for wound care. We have developed a unique, tunable and Arduino microcontroller-based extremely low-frequency (ELF) pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) device for accelerating the wound healing process by reducing the microbial infection. The layout and detailed design of the device are presented here. Simulations carried out for the fabrication of the Helmholtz coil used in the PEMF device are also presented. This system can provide the flexibility of dose substance by selecting the type and frequency of the waveform, exposure duration, and magnetic field strength. To test the efficacy of the device in the biological system, we have designed colony-forming unit assay in Staphylococcus aureus with an exposure to PEMF in the frequency range of 5–30 Hz for 90 min. The experiments have been conducted in controlled EMF environments as per the international standard exposure guidelines. The results show a 60% reduction in S. aureus CFU after 90 minutes of PEMF exposure, and hence, show that the designed system is very effective for wound care by reducing the microbial growth.

KEYWORDS:

• Arduino microcontroller
• Colony-forming unit
• Extremely low frequency
• Helmholtz coil
• Pulsed electromagnetic field
• Staphylococcus aureus

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are grateful to the Director of DIPAS, DRDO for his attention and permission to conduct experiments and publish the results. They are also thankful to the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) Government of India for the financial support.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Himani Kohli

Himani Kohli is presently a senior research scholar at Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), DRDO, Delhi. She received her BSc and MSc degrees both in electronics from University of Delhi and Jamia Millia Islamia in 2010 and 2012, respectively. She has been awarded DRDO fellowship for pursuing research. She is registered as a PhD student at Department of Electronic Science, University of Delhi. Her research interests are design and development of electronic non-pharmacological devices and studying its biomedical applications. She is an associate member of IETE. Email: [email protected]

Sangeeta Srivastava

Sangeeta Srivastava is teaching at the Department of Physics and Electronics, Rajdhani College, the University of Delhi for more than 30 years. She did her PhD in integrated optics from the University of Delhi in 1997. Since then, she has actively been pursuing research in the area of photonics. In the past few years, her research interests have diversified to include the study of electromagnetic healing techniques involving low- as well as high-frequency vibrations. Email: [email protected]

Manan Oza

Manan Oza is a qualified medical doctor (MS Uni, Vadodara) with master's in Medical Science and Technology (IIT Kharagpur). He has over nine years of experience with design and development of biomedical devices. He is currently working with Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), DRDO, Delhi. Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Satish Chouhan

Satish Chauhan, Scientist ‘D’ at Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, DRDO. His major research areas are biomedical instrumentation, High altitude engineering and cognitive neuroscience. He has publications in various journals and patent to his credit. Email: [email protected]

Shivani Verma

Shivani Verma is a research fellow at DIPAS, DRDO, working on epitope-based vaccine development against Salmonella infection, with life sciences as broad field of research, under the supervision of Dr Anju Bansal, Sc ‘F’. She has completed post-graduation and graduation in biomedical sciences from Delhi University. Her research interest area includes regulatory mechanisms at molecular and immunological levels in different diseases. Email: [email protected]

Anju Bansal

Anju Bansal, Scientist ‘F’ and head of Division of Experimental Biology, Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), DRDO. She did her PhD in Biochemistry from IARI, New Delhi in 1990. Her area of research includes facilitation of acclimatization to high-altitude hypoxia and improvement of physical performance, role of hypoxia mimetics, development of Heat shock protein-based recombinant vaccines against microbial infections and role of antioxidants in combating free radical induced oxidative damage. Email: [email protected]

Bhuvnesh Kumar

Bhuvnesh Kumar, Scientist ‘G’ is the director, Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS) since December 2016. Prior to this, he has served as director, Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), Leh. Dr Bhuvnesh Kumar, an alumnus of G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pant Nagar (Uttarakhand) has obtained his graduate degree in veterinary sciences and post-graduate & doctorate degrees in veterinary medicine. He is a recipient of Commendation Certificate from then Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Agni Award for excellence in self-reliance, Laboratory Scientist of the Year award. Email: [email protected]

Sanjeev Kumar Sharma

Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Scientist ‘G’ at Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, DRDO. He is presently head of Biomedical Instrumentation Department. He has obtained his post graduate and doctorate degree in zoology entomology in 1986 from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. His major research areas are high altitude physiology and biomedical instrumentation. He has several publications in international and national journals and patents to his credit.