A new drug capsule developed at MIT has a robotic cap that spins and tunnels through the mucus barrier as it reaches the small intestine. It enables medications delivered by the capsule to enter the intestine's cell lining.
Medication Through Injection
Large protein medications can't pass through the mucus barrier that coats the digestive tract, which is one of the reasons oral delivery of these drugs is so challenging. It implies that the majority of medications made of proteins or nucleic acids, including insulin, must be injected or administered at a medical facility.
It is possible to maximize the drug's dispersion within a local area and improve the absorption of both small molecules and macromolecules by displacing the mucus, according to Giovanni Traverso, an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT.
In their recent work, published in Science Robotics, the researchers showed that they could distribute both insulin and vancomycin, an antibiotic peptide that is typically administered intravenously using this method.
RoboCap Capsule
For many years, Traverso's lab has been working on methods for orally administering protein medications like insulin. They do, however, find it challenging since protein medicines often degrade in the acidic environment of the digestive tract. Additionally, they have trouble breaking through the mucus lining the tract.
According to Shriya Srinivasan, a research associate at MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, they might deposit the medication directly on the epithelium if they could tunnel through the mucus. The concept is that, after swallowing the capsule, the outer shell would dissolve in the digestive system. The mucus would then start to break down and clear as all these features became visible.
The RoboCap capsule resembles a multivitamin in size, according to TechXplore. It has the tunneling features in its main body and surface as well as the drug payload in a tiny reservoir at one end. The gelatin coating on the capsule can be adjusted to disintegrate at a particular pH level.
A tiny motor within the RoboCap capsule begins spinning when the coating dissolves because of the pH change that results from this process. This movement aids the capsule's ability to burrow into the mucus and push it aside. Additionally, the capsule is covered in tiny protrusions that function like toothbrush bristles to remove mucus.
The spinning motion also helps to erode the compartment that carries the drug. The medicine is gradually released into the digestive tract due to the spinning motion's aid in eroding the compartment where it is stored.
According to Traverso, the RoboCap temporarily removes the initial mucus barrier and then improves absorption by spreading the medicine as much as possible locally. They are actually optimizing their ability to create the ideal environment for the medicine to be absorbed by combining all of these components based into the digestive tract.
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Previous Attempts To Deliver Injectable Drugs via the Oral Pathwaya
According to Science Daily, Traverso has already created a number of innovative methods for orally delivering medications that must often be injected. A tablet covered in numerous tiny needles is one of those attempts. He was also tempted to create star-shaped structures that unfurl and can stay in the stomach for days or weeks while dispensing medication.
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