Reward-based hypertension control by a synthetic brain–dopamine interface

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Significance

Essential activities such as feeding and reproduction as well as social, emotional, and mental behavior are reinforced by the brain’s reward system. Pleasure status directly correlates with dopamine levels released in the brain. Because dopamine leaks into the bloodstream via the sympathetic nervous system, brain and blood dopamine levels are interrelated. We designed a synthetic dopamine sensor-effector device that enables engineered human cells, insulated by immunoprotective microcontainers and implanted into the abdomen of mice, to monitor blood-dopamine levels and drive dopamine-dependent secretion of product proteins in pleasure situations associated with palatable food, drugs, or sexual arousal. Hypertensive animals treated with this device, which produces a clinically licensed antihypertensive peptide, had their high blood pressure corrected when exposed to sexual arousal.

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