Insulin in a pill of MIT researchers

People requiring daily injections, such as those with type 1 diabetes, would be happy to know that MIT researchers have developed a pill specifically designed to inject them in case of ingestion. They named it self-orienting applicator to the millimeter scale, or SOMA. The results of their experiment were published in the last issue of the journal Science.

An MIT-led research team has developed a drug capsule that can be used to administer oral doses of insulin. Picture: Felice Frankel

The researchers developed SOMA, pea-sized capsules containing a small needle made of solid and compressed insulin. When ingested, this insulin is injected into the wall of the stomach. The team has already begun testing these pills on pigs and found that it was still effective in delivering the insulin doses needed by diabetic patients.

According to Giovanni Traverso, co-author and badistant professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, "our motivation is to make it easier for patients to take medication, especially drugs that require an injection. The most clbadic is insulin, but there are many others. He explained that taking insulin injections every day can be a pain test for diabetics.

The team explains that the idea of ​​this pill injection came from a species of leopard tortoise seen in Africa. This turtle has a shell-shaped dome that is high and allows it to stand straight when rolling on its back. The idea also came from the Weeble-Wobble toy that can stand up on its own. The capsule is also dome-shaped so you can straighten up to allow the injection to face the wall of the stomach. The first author Alex Abramsom, a graduate student at MIT, said: "They are upset but are able to steer it. The leopard tortoise also had a flat base, which makes it difficult to push, and it can turn easily if it is found on the back. So let's badume that a person was bending over when the device was about to be inserted. The device will be configured and will orient each time to touch the lining of the stomach. "

The needle contains a compressed spring that is retained with a sugar disc. When the capsule dissolves with the acids in the water and stomach, the source is released and the injection is injected onto the stomach wall from which it is functioning. Abramsom explains: "When spring is released, it releases its kinetic energy at once."

Due to the absence of pain sensors in the wall of the stomach, this injection is painless. In the following hour, the needle dissolves in the blood and is eliminated. The spring and other parts of the capsule are removed without causing any problems by the digestive system. In their experiments, researchers were able to inject up to 5 milligrams of insulin into the stomach walls of pigs. Administered insulin is solid. "Instead of liquid, we wanted to make it solid because you can insert many more tablets in solid form than liquid," said Dr. Traverso.

Researchers are currently perfecting their system by testing them on pigs and dogs and hope that clinical trials on humans can begin within three years. They are currently working with the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk to develop SOMA.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that 30.3 million Americans currently suffer from diabetes mellitus and that many of them require regular injections of diabetes. ;insulin. The lead author, Dr. Robert Langer, a member of the MIT's Koch Institute for Cancer Research, said in a statement: "We really hope that this new type of capsule will one day help diabetic patients and perhaps all those who need injection or infusion treatments. "