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Scientists Are Working On Ways To Swap the Needle For a Pill (npr.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: One team of scientists, from MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, developed a system to deliver insulin that actually still uses a needle -- but is so small you can swallow it and the injection doesn't hurt. They built a pea-size device containing a spring that ejects a tiny dart of solid insulin into the wall of the stomach, says gastroenterologist Carlo Giovanni Traverso, an associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "We chose the stomach as the site of delivery because we recognized that the stomach is a thick and robust part of the GI tract," Traverso says. Once the device gets into the stomach, the humidity there allows the spring to launch the insulin dart. As the researchers report in the journal Science, they've tested the device on pigs, and it can deliver a therapeutic dose of insulin provided the pig has an empty stomach.
On the other side of the U.S., nanoengineer Ronnie Fang of the University of California, San Diego and his colleagues have a different delivery system. Theirs is a kind of ingestible microrocket, about the size of a grain of sand, that is designed to zip past the stomach and into the small intestine. "It actually propels [itself] using bubbles in a reaction of magnesium with biological fluids," Fang says. The rocket has a coating that protects its payload from the acidic and enzyme-filled environment of the stomach. Once the rocket enters the small intestine, the change in acidity causes the coating to dissolve and lets the rocket stick to the intestinal wall to release its payload, in this case a vaccine protein. As Fang and his colleagues report in Nano Letters, their delivery system works in mice, but human testing is probably many years off.
On the other side of the U.S., nanoengineer Ronnie Fang of the University of California, San Diego and his colleagues have a different delivery system. Theirs is a kind of ingestible microrocket, about the size of a grain of sand, that is designed to zip past the stomach and into the small intestine. "It actually propels [itself] using bubbles in a reaction of magnesium with biological fluids," Fang says. The rocket has a coating that protects its payload from the acidic and enzyme-filled environment of the stomach. Once the rocket enters the small intestine, the change in acidity causes the coating to dissolve and lets the rocket stick to the intestinal wall to release its payload, in this case a vaccine protein. As Fang and his colleagues report in Nano Letters, their delivery system works in mice, but human testing is probably many years off.
As a guy who has been using it for at least ten years, most of the time it doesn't hurt. Even when it does, it is not massive pain.
Great! Only $3.14 million a year.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
Eat a spring-loaded micro-injection pill to accomplish a minor convenience. What could go wrong. Yeah don't work on curing cancer, make a bullshit product instead. Great work Harvard/MIT money-grubs.
How long until these puppies come with s0up3rhXc0reBrOd00d opiate analogs?
Get people less obese, then we have to need to stick needles in them or shove more stuff down their throats (they already shove too much anyway)
People aren't always diabetic simply because they're over-weight idiot -- and, sometimes, alternate diets, to help mitigate the effects, and taking insulin can actually make weight management more difficult.
For example, Halle Berry, Nick Jonas, Sharon Stone, Jay Cutler have Type 1 Diabetes, while Tom Hanks, Salma Hayek have Type 2.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
To preface this: I always end up with a very unstable alkyl nitrite that fizzes like crazy and goes flat while being dried with molecular sieves or NaHCO3. Any takers?
Also, I got my hands on some epoxidized soybean oil, but what I am really after is epoxidized linseed oil.
---
Alkyl Nitrite preparation This will be a more detailed explanation of the procedure
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I will be using the 500ml beaker as the reaction vessel. The only modification I make is to tape three small pieces of aquarium pump tubing to the bottom of the beaker; this lets the beaker sit just slightly above the Ice bath container, but not too far away as to interfere with the magnetic stir bar.
Setup the apparatus: Place the magnetic stirrer on the ring stand; the 2 qt pyrex measuring bowl sits atop the stirrer. Hang a clamp on the ring stand, and attach the dropping funnel and extension tube to the clamp. Swing the dropping funnel and down tube to the side while moving the ice bath and reaction vessels.
Add 65 ml distilled H2O to the reaction vessel. add 41.4g (0.60 mol) of NaNO2; let the stir bar mix and dissolve the NaNO2 (a slow stir rate is advised, so that no vortex is formed).
Add 46.2 ml (0.50 mol) of Isobutyl Alcohol or Add 54.4 ml (0.50 mol) of n-Amyl alcohol or Add 45.8 ml (0.50 mol of Butyl alcohol
(note: If preparing a blend of alcohols, make sure the total alcohol content is 0.5 mol (e.g. an even mix of all three alcohols would be 0.17 mol of each)).
Add 20 ml of distilled H2O to a 125 ml erlynmeyer flask
Add 49.6 ml (0.6 mol) of 37% HCL.
stopper the flask.
Pre-chill both the beaker and the flask, in your freezer, for about 2 hours.
After two hours:
Crush some ice in a blender (I use a fruit ninja, and it can turn ice into snow (very helpful and will provide lower temperatures than block ice). You will need enough to fill the area around the reaction vessel twice.
Place the reaction vessel (with cold NaNo2, H2O and alcohol(s) into the 2 qt pyrex measuring bowl. Fill the space around the reaction vessel with alternating layers of snow and 260g of table salt (placing a 'shower cap' or saran wrap around the reaction vessel will help prevent ice/salt from entering the reaction vessel).
While the reaction vessel cools:
Charge the dropping funnel with (ensuring the stopcock is closed) HALF of the 49.6 ml of 37% acid and 20ml H2O solution from the stoppered Erlenmeyer flask.
Using an infrared thermometer, the salt/ice bath should be cooling the reaction vessel liquid to about -12C.
Swing the dropping funnel into place, and lower the down tube into the reaction vessel liquid ( just the tip of the tube into the liquid; remember this placement for later (when you will be placing it again, but there will be a yield layer next time; you don't want to drop 'just' under this new surface (or you'll be dropping acid into the yield), you w
I have type I diabetes as well. Is it ok if i swallow my boyfriend's cum?
Look forward to having 30 cent insulin needles be replaced with 300 dollar pills, not even talking about the actual insulin of course
It's shocking how out of touch medical science can be. The problem with shots - for people who have fear of them - was never about the pain. It was the bone-deep aversion to sharp objects being stuck in the skin. Just knowing it's going in. Whether it hurts or not is utterly irrelevant. A "painless" needle is just as uncomfortable as a painful one. Perhaps even more so, because at least with the physical pain it can disctract you from the thought of what the needle entails. It's difficult to understand for those who have no problem with needles. Think of it as an aversion to nails scratching the chalkboard. It's not any physical pain that's the cause of the discomfort (obviously no physical pain is entailed in such a scenario). But it's still maddening.
Scientists... please contact and get user feedback before you develop drugs. Don't just push what you think is best, because it will look good in a high impact journal publication and win you that next round of funding...
Reminds me of "Innerspace".
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
Now I can get my heroin in pill form.
I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the lozenge take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done
Sorry. That just doesn't ring for me like the original.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Two things I didn't see mentioned in the linked article, but will be addressed at some point, is the fact that the dose of insulin can vary wildly depending on current blood glucose level (take more to get it back to the target), and food consumption (more food = more insulin). (So lots of pills of a single dose, several pills of varying doses, or fill the pills yourself?)
The other thing I don't recall seeing was how fast the body absorbs the insulin delivered into the stomach lining compared to the (roughly) 30 minutes delay after injecting into the fatty tissue that is typical for the fast acting insulins.
If instead of magnesium it used a sodium reaction it would propel itself much faster, and at the same time would provide a dramatic cure for constipation.
I'm sick and tired of these hip, "ironic" sigs. This is an actual, honest-to-goodness no-nonsense sig!
I'm not going to shill for a specific pharmaceutical product by mentioning it's name, but oddly enough, DVR and I-don't-watch-commercials-or-not, I managed to notice there is a product on the market that is an inhaled version of insulin.
contrary to common belief there is not much protein there. Go on indulge as you please.
T2 correlates with weight pretty well, and even thin looking people can be “skinny fat”. That is, they have an uncommonly high bodyfat % for their weight and less muscle than expected. Eating rich and hyperprocessed foods that the west and especially these lifestyles offer in plethora will do that.
Inspector: (continuing) And what is this one: Spring Surprise?
Mr. Hilton: Ah, that's one of our specialities. Covered in dark, velvety chocolate, when you pop it into your mouth, stainless steel bolts spring out and plunge straight through both cheeks.
Inspector: (stunned) Well where's the pleasure in THAT?!? If people pop a nice little chockie into their mouth, they don't expect to get their cheeks pierced!!! In any case, it is an inadequate description of the sweetmeat. I shall have to ask you to accompany me to the station.
Mr. Hilton: (shrugging) It's a fair cop.
Inspector: And DON'T talk to the audience.
LOL at captcha "circus"
What happens when the insulin dart is a dud, it hits some food, doesn't pierce the stomach, etc. There is no verification it worked.
So, let me see if I understand.
They want to deliver insulin via an ejected dart, inside the stomach, which they want to be empty... in a person who is likely diabetic because of obesity caused by constant eating...
Interesting.
Perhaps this will finally bring about a convergence of the world's most difficult professions: Rocket Surgery!
Insulin is a protein. Like all protein (or peptide) drugs it needs to be injected, you can’t take it in pill form. This is because proteins are digested in the GI tract, are generally large and difficult to absorb intact, and if they make it that far they then have to deal with the liver before they can get to their intended target. So protein or peptide drugs are simply not able to be delivered orally.
The need to give daily injections is literally a pain, however. There has therefore been extensive research in the pharmaceutical industry into methods to allow for oral, transdermal, or mucous membrane administration of so-called biologicals.
As this review states (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319016414000590):
These problems can be overcome by adopting techniques such as chemical transformation of protein structures, enzyme inhibitors, mucoadhesive polymers and permeation enhancers.
This new study takes a completely different approach – they have created an autoinjector that you swallow, which then injects insulin into the stomach from the inside. The research is the result of collaboration between academics and industry:
Giovanni Traverso, 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 starting as a faculty member in 2019, is also a senior author of the study. The first author of the paper, which appears in the Feb. 7 issue of Science, is MIT graduate student Alex Abramson. The research team also includes scientists from the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
This is a great example of exactly why academics benefit from their collaboration with industry, and should not be shamed for it as if it is necessarily nefarious.
In any case, the technology is quite impressive. The researchers previously made pills lined with multiple needles that were themselves made of compressed drug. The problem was that the drugs desolved in the stomach and most of it was destroyed before it could get into the stomach lining. In their new design they have a single needle, in this case made from compressed freeze-dried insulin. The shaft is made of a separate biodegradable material. The needle is attached to a spring held in place by a sugar-based material that dissolves in the stomach acid, releasing the needle which is supposed to shoot into the stomach lining where the insulin can dissolve and be absorbed into the bloodstream.
This is a neat idea, but presented some technical challenges. For example, they needed to make sure that the needle was oriented properly, so that it would shoot into the stomach wall. They were apparently inspired by the design of a leopard tortoise’s shell, which can be self-orienting. The shape of the capsule was designed to that it always turns upright in the same orientation, allowing for some control over the direction of the needle.
They have been testing this system in pigs, and have been able to inject 5mg of insulin in this manner, with the needle dissolving over one hour (the rate can apparently be controlled by how the insulin is compressed). This is in the therapeutic range. The system has to undergo human trials, which means it is still at least several years away. So far they have detected no harm from this delivery system, with the unused components passing through the GI tract without problems.
If this system pans out, which seems likely given what they have achieved so far, this could be a huge benefit for people who are dependent on protein or peptide based drugs (for quick background, a peptide is a chain of amino acids, while a protein is a folded peptide). Not having to stick yourself with a needle on a regular basis, causing chronic irritation of the skin and discomfort, would be a benefit to quality of life, and may be safer. Of course we need to see if there are any downsides to sticking small needles into the stomach every day over years, but remember the stom
What's better than poking holes through the skin? Why, poking holes in the lining of the stomach!!!
I can hear Q's narration in my head: "Now pay attention, 007. This pill contains a magnesium micro-rocket that ignites on contact with stomach acid. The blue pill delivers a needle with a fast-acting poison, and the red pill implants a tracking device that will remain embedded in the intestinal lining for up to two weeks. If you should use one...please, do us both a favor and don't recover it!"
I remember going shopping with my mom and they'd have boxes of single use syringes on the shelf for people to buy. My sister has type I diabetes and so needs insulin injections. Each box seemed quite inexpensive as I recall, otherwise they would not be out in the open on the shelf for people to grab while shopping. Then one day they disappeared.
You see the illegal drug abusers were buying these same syringes for their habit and we can't have that, apparently. The "people who know best" in government required people to have a physician's note to buy syringes now. So the drug abusers were saving needles, sharing them, and getting infections from it. HIV spread quickly about this time. So, what does the "people who know best" do? They set up needle exchanges, if you bring in a dirty needle then they give you a clean one. Or some government funded project just hands out needles to anyone that asked for one. You see, we can't seem to stop people using the drugs and so we treat this new health problem by giving the drug abusers clean needles.
Here's an idea, let's go back to selling sterile single use needles by the gross like we did decades ago. That way we aren't expending unnecessary resources in both keeping the drug abusers from getting the needles while also spending government money handing them out. It's probably cheaper to give them away than have to deal with people stealing them from hospitals and clinics. If we make it legal again to just SELL them then people can make money on this.
A gross of needles might sound like a lot at first but for a diabetic that needs 4 injections per day that's a one month supply. This is far safer than re-using needles, and given the prevalence of the practice not so long ago I'd assume it's also quite inexpensive.
Stupid drug laws created this problem with syringes, let's do away with them all. We'd all be healthier for it. It's that or we keep giving out needles instead of just letting the drug abusers buy them like they used to.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
I can see how this might be beneficial for those who are afraid of needles... But Idk how it will be possible considering pills will take time to process.