Ingestible Device Delivers Insulin Directly to Stomach

Researchers from MIT  developed a drug capsule that could be used to deliver oral doses of insulin, potentially replacing injections. The tip of the needle is made of compressed, freeze-dried insulin. The shaft of the needle, which does not enter the stomach wall, is made from another biodegradable material. Within the capsule, the needle is attached to a compressed spring that is held in place by a disk made of sugar. When the capsule is swallowed, water in the stomach dissolves the sugar disk, releasing the spring and injecting the needle into the stomach wall.

Transcript

00:00:00 Diabetes mellitus affects over 30 million Americans and 415 million people worldwide individuals with diabetes either do not generate sufficient insulin are unable to use insulin properly or experience both issues diabetes results in high blood sugar levels which in turn can lead to serious complications including kidney, eye and heart disease along with many other ailments for many people with diabetes injecting insulin multiple times per day is the only way to control blood glucose levels. Daily injections can be challenging for people, injections can cause discomforts they draw attention, formulations require refrigeration and they generate biohazardous needle waste. These challenges can result in lower patient

00:00:47 compliance which in turn results in worse health outcomes. Over the past 100 years physicians and scientists have searched for a method to deliver insulin using an oral capsule. However the walls of the gastrointestinal tract to prevent the uptake of large molecules such as insulin a team of scientists from MIT Harvard, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Novo Nordisk have developed a breakthrough capsule technology which overcomes this barrier after a patient ingests the capsule it autonomously inserts insulin into the top layers of stomach tissue. Inspired by the unique shape of leopard tortoises which allow them to self right from any orientation the team designed a novel system with the ability to consistently orient and release the drug into the tissue wall

00:01:34 the self orienting millimeter scale actuator known as S.O.M.A. consistently delivered insulin with an efficiency comparable to injection in our preclinical evaluation. Both the tortoiseshell and the S.O.M.A. possess upper portions with pointed tops and lower portions with level bottoms the high curvature body allows the device to reorient itself utilizing gravity alone. The flat base ensures that the S.O.M.A. does not tip over when moved by stomach contractions the stomach walls muscular tissue acts as a natural barrier and prevents the risk of perforation during drug insertion. After delivering the drug the capsule passes safely through the body a dissolvable timing mechanism ensures reproducible insulin delivery to the stomach wall

00:02:22 rather than esophagus or small intestine. Insulin uptake begins within a few minutes after ingestion and continues throughout the day. In a large animal model insulin delivered orally using the soma provided equivalent drug exposure compared to the same formulation injected under the skin the scientists hope that this new capsule technology will eventually allow patients to take a multitude of drugs including insulin orally.