New pill can deliver insulin

Oral Doses of Insulin

A drug capsule has been established by an MIT headed research group which could be utilised to supply oral doses of insulin. This could possibly be a replacing injection that patients with type 1 diabetes are administered daily.

The capsule which is the size of a blueberry comprises of a miniature needle of compressed insulin that is injected when the capsule is said to reach the stomach. Researchers on conducting test on animals have portrayed that they can deliver adequate insulin to lower blood sugar levels in comparison to the product created through injections on skin.

Moreover they have also verified that the device could be adjusted to delivery other protein drugs also. A member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and one of the senior authors of the study, Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor, had commented that `they are hopeful that this new kind of capsule could someday help diabetic patients and anyone needing therapies could now be given through injection or infusion.

Innovative Capsule 

An assistant professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and a visiting scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he is beginning as a faculty member in 2019, is Giovanni Traverso. Treverso is also a senior author of the research. The first author of the paper which had appeared in the issue of Science on Feb 7 is said to be a MIT graduate student, Alex Abramson.

The research team comprises of scientists from the pharmaceutical company – Novo Nordisk. Traverso Langer together with his colleagues had developed a pill with several tiny needles, some years ago.

These could be utilised to inject drugs in the lining of the stomach or the small intestine. The researchers had altered the design in the case of the innovative capsule, by having a single needle enabling them to avoid injecting drugs in the stomach. Here they could be fragmented down by the acids in the stomach prior to any effect.

Compressed Freeze-Dried Insulin

The tip of the needle is said to be made of almost 100% compressed freeze-dried insulin, utilising the same procedure to form tablets of medicine. The shaft of the needle that does not enter the stomach is said to be made from biodegradable substance. The needle within the capsule is linked to a compressed spring which is held in position by a sugary disc.

When the capsule is consumed, water in the stomach tends to dissolve the sugar disk releasing the spring, thereby injecting the needle in the wall of the stomach. The researchers are of the belief that since the stomach wall does not tend to have pain receptors, the patients would be incapable of feeling the injection.

To warrant that the drug is injected in the stomach, they designed this system ensuring that however the capsule reaches the stomach, it could orient itself and enable the needle to remain in contact with the stomach’s lining. . Traveso had commented that `as soon as the patient takes it, he would want the system to self-right so that he could ensure contact with the tissue’.

Traverso has also mentioned that his motivation is to ensure to make it easy for the patients in taking medication, especially those which would need an injection. The classic one being insulin, though there are several others on the list.