A team of scientists has developed ingestible capsules that release a burst of drugs directly inside the stomach or other parts of the digestive system.
- These capsules can offer an alternative method to deliver drugs such as insulin that, thus far, are typically administered via injections.
- Inspired by the jetting systems of cephalopods like squids and cuttlefish, researchers have developed and evaluated microjet delivery systems that can deliver jets in axial and radial directions into tissue, making them suitable for tubular and globular segments of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Needle-based injections currently enable the administration of a wide range of biomacromolecule therapies across the body. However, needles generally require training, sharps management and disposal, and pose challenges for autonomous ingestible systems.
- Hence, the ingestible capsules substantially broadens the possibilities for future endoscopic and ingestible drug delivery devices.
Cephalopods
- Cephalopods are the most intelligent, most mobile, and the largest of all molluscs.
- The word “cephalopod” is derived from Greek and means “head foot,” which perfectly describes animals that have eyes just above their many limbs.
- Cephalopods like squid, octopuses, cuttlefish, the chambered nautilus, and their relatives display remarkable diversity in size and lifestyle with adaptations for predation, locomotion, disguise, and communication.
