• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Medical Tubing and Extrusion

Medical tubing and extrusion technologies

  • Catheters
  • Components
    • Connectors
    • Needles and Injections
    • Seals
    • Tubing Components
  • Manufacturing
    • Coatings
    • Extrusions
    • Machining
    • Injection Molding
    • Insert molding
    • Tools
  • Materials
    • Advanced Materials
    • Silicone
  • Research & Development
  • Suppliers

“Smart capsule” is potential new drug-delivery vehicle

July 14, 2015 By MDO Editor

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Emil Venere with an interview from Babak Ziaie, both of Purdue University.

Smart Capsule
A new “smart capsule” under development could deliver medications directly to the large intestines to target certain medical conditions. The prototype is about as large as a 000-size gelatin capsule.

A new “smart capsule” under development could deliver medications directly to the large intestines to target certain medical conditions.

“Usually, when you take medication it is absorbed in the stomach and small intestine before making it to the large intestine,” said Babak Ziaie, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University. “However, there are many medications that you would like to deliver specifically to the large intestine; a smart capsule is an ideal targeted-delivery vehicle for this.”

Such an innovation might be used to treat of irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease and a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection called “Clostridium difficile” in which the body loses natural microorganisms needed to fight infection.

Findings are detailed in a research paper that appeared online and will be published in a future print issue of the “Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers” (IEEE) from Transactions of Biomedical Engineering. The paper was authored by graduate students Wuyang Yu, Rahim Rahimi and Manuel Ochoa, Rodolfo Pinal, an associate professor of industrial and physical pharmacy, and Ziaie.

People are sometimes treated for Clostridium difficile by transplanting feces from another person into the patient’s large intestine, which provides vital microbes. However, it might be possible to convert the microbes into a powder through freeze-drying and deliver them with smart capsules instead, Ziaie explained.

The smart capsule is designed to release powdered medication just before reaching the ileocecal valve, where the small and large intestine meet.

Researchers tested the smart capsule with a “fluidic model” that mimics the gastrointestinal tract and also using an experiment that recreates the changing acidity and peristalsis of the stomach and intestines as food passes through the digestive system.

“It takes up to 12 hours to get to the large intestine, so we wanted to make sure the smart capsule can withstand conditions in the gastrointestinal tract,” Ziaie said.

The capsule is powered by a capacitor that is charged before use. A switch inside the capsule is activated by a magnet that could be worn on the patient’s waist. As the capsule meanders through the intestines it eventually comes close to the magnet, activating the switch and releasing a spring-loaded mechanism that opens the capsule, which delivers the medication.

The prototype capsule is about the same size as a 000-size gelatin capsule and is designed to release the powdered medication just before reaching the ileocecal valve.

The researchers have filed for a provisional U.S. patent through Purdue’s Office of Technology Commercialization of the Purdue Research Foundation.

The research is ongoing and is based at Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center. Future work may involve human patients.

Purdue University
purdue.edu

Filed Under: Advanced Materials, Research & Development, Tubing Components Tagged With: purduebircknanotechnologycenter, purdueresearchfoundation, purdueuniversity

Primary Sidebar

DeviceTalks Tuesdays

DeviceTalks Tuesdays
MDO ad

Stay Current

Need Medical Tubing news in a minute?
We Deliver!

Medical Tubing + Extrusion newsletter get you caught up on all the mission critical news you need in medical tubing. Sign up today.

Enews Sign up

Sponsored Content

A new way to access scientific papers?

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website

Footer

Inv Logo

MASSDEVICE MEDICAL NETWORK

MassDevice
DeviceTalks
Medical Tubing & Extrusion
Medical Design & Outsourcing
MedTech 100 Index
Drug Discovery & Development
Pharmaceutical Processing World
Medical Design Souring
R&D World

Medical Tubing & Extrusion

Subscribe to our e-newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Attend our Monthly Webinars
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
Join our Device Talks Tuesdays Discussion
Add us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterConnect with us on LinkedIn Follow us on YouTube

Copyright © 2022 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Advertise | Privacy Policy | RSS