A pill on a magnet

Magnetic capsule will be an alternative to injections
Copper news 

American scientists have developed a magnetic capsule that increases the degree of absorption of drugs in the intestine and can serve as an alternative to injection. (The picture shows a pill next to a 25-cent coin with a diameter of 2.5 cm.)

Currently, many drugs have to be injected, since they can only be absorbed in a certain part of the gastrointestinal tract, but they do not have time to do it, passing through the intestines. It does not matter much if the drug is used once or in a short course, however, in the treatment of diseases such as diabetes, neoplasms, etc. the need for an alternative to injections is felt very acutely.

Researchers from Brown University in the Rhode Island capital Providence have developed a gelatin capsule with a small magnet inside, the location of which can be accurately determined and adjusted by an external magnetic device. Scientists were able to confirm the functionality of the invention in an experiment on laboratory rats. The location of the capsule, determined by an external magnet, was monitored using an X-ray machine.

As the author of the study Edith Mathiowitz noted, this is not the first attempt to create a magnetic pill. The primary task facing the developers was to ensure the security of the device. Therefore, it was designed so that the determination of the position of the capsule and its retention in the desired part of the intestine occurred with the minimum possible effort.

For this purpose, the external magnetic system, after careful calculations, received high-precision computer control with feedback, eliminating the possibility of tissue damage. In an experiment on rats, the system, holding the capsule in one part of the intestine for 12 hours, exerted pressure on its wall 60 times less than what can cause injury.

Having achieved these results, the research team intends to start studying the absorption of drugs from the magnetic capsule and, if successful, proceed to experiments on humans.

The report on the work is published on the website of Brown University (Magnetically controlled pills could boost the body's absorption of drugs) and in the online version of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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19.01.2011