MIT's new oral capsule injects insulin through microneedles

[Judi Lynn]

Michael Irving
4 hours ago

For people with type 2 diabetes, regular insulin injections are a part of everyday life, but that's not the most comfortable routine. Plenty of work has gone into developing an insulin pill as a less invasive alternative, but that comes with its own challenges. Now, an MIT team has created a new design for a capsule that houses a microneedle made of insulin, which injects the hormone through the stomach lining.

Delivering insulin orally might sound simple enough, given how common pills are for many medicines. But the stomach is a hostile environment, and the harsh acids there can neutralize many drug compounds before they can get to work. Unsurprisingly, much of the work in developing insulin pills has gone into protective coatings that help it survive the journey until it can deliver the insulin payload.

But the MIT researchers have taken a different approach. A few years ago the team created a pill coated in tiny needles, which injected medicine into the intestinal lining as it passed through. Now the design has been refined so it only has one needle, which injects the drug into the wall of the stomach.

The new capsule is roughly the size of a blueberry and is made of a biodegradable polymer. The mechanical components inside are quite complex: There's a microneedle made of freeze-dried insulin, and a stainless steel spring coiled up and held back by a disk made of sugar. When the sugar dissolves in the stomach acid, the spring flicks out and pushes the microneedle into the stomach lining.

More:
https://newatlas.com/mit-insulin-oral-capsule/58390/

[LakeSuperiorView]

1. Type 1 diabetes means no insulin production. Requires insulin injection.

Type 2, the body doesn't produce enough insulin and/or is unable to use insulin properly. May or may not require insulin.

I remember reading a book in grade school that had a bit about hunting wolves. They steamed a bone, then wrapped around a piece of meat, tied it in place, then put it outside to freeze. Cut the string off after it is frozen, then leave it for the wolves, who eat it whole. When thawed in the stomach, the bone springs back and lodges. The kid in the book realizes that it it a cruel practice.

This new capsule isn't cruel, but sounds similar in some ways.

The misidentifying Type 1 and Type 2 makes me think the writer really doesn't get the story well enough to relate it to others.

[Massacure]

3. That's not the only thing that made me cringe.

From the article:

The team tested the capsule in pigs, and found that it was effective at delivering up to 5 milligrams of insulin into the animals' bloodstreams. This is on a level comparable to the amount in a regular insulin shot.

That's about 144 units of insulin and most diabetics use syringes that hold 30 or 50 units.

[LakeSuperiorView]

5. They did qualify that with "up to".

I'm sure they could load them with less.

I'm more leery of the timing of the needle release. The needle release happens when the sugar disc dissolves and the hope is that the capsule is situated in the correct orientation, in contact with the bottom of the stomach. If it is not just right, the micro needle springs out and nothing happens except it is digested. When someone needs insulin, they need to get it, not the hope that they might.

[Delmette2.0]

2. I applauded any way to make this easier for patients.

But we may never get rid of micro-beads from rivers and lakes, now there maybe micro-needles!

I hope there will be a solution that doesn't do harm to fish, other animals and possibly people.

[LakeSuperiorView]

6. The "needles" are made of insulin. They will either enter the bloodstream or be digested.

The rest, pictured in a post below, will eventually come out the other end. No doubt prompting a thought of "Corn? When did I eat corn?"

[Judi Lynn]

4. Pills equipped with tiny needles can inject a body from the insidePills equipped with tiny needles c

The ingestible devices administer medicine and then pass out through the digestive tract
BY MARIA TEMMING 2:00PM, FEBRUARY 7, 2019



INGESTION OVER INJECTION Swallowable medical devices, each about the size of a pea, could give painless injections inside the stomach.

FELICE FRANKEL

For those of us who cringe at the sight of needles, there may someday be a less daunting alternative to getting a shot: swallowing a pill-sized device that delivers medication by painlessly pricking the inside of the stomach.

A prototype of the device, described in the Feb. 8 Science, administers insulin. But similar ingestible capsules could also replace skin injections of antibodies for cancer treatment, hormones and other pharmaceuticals.

Each ingestible device is about the size of a pea and shaped like an acorn, with a lightweight polyester “nut” and stainless steel cap. The shape is designed to guide the device to rest, cap down, on the floor of the stomach. There, it sticks a needle tip composed almost entirely of insulin a few millimeters into the mucus membrane lining the stomach. Once the insulin needle tip dissolves, the device passes through the rest of the digestive system.

Thanks to the dearth of sharp pain receptors inside the stomach, the tiny injection “is unlikely to cause any discomfort,” says study coauthor Giovanni Traverso, a gastroenterologist and biomedical engineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and MIT.

More:
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/pills-needles-injection-medication?tgt=nr