Personalized Pills

Singapore researchers have come up with a new way to 3D-print tablets

3Dtoday based on the materials of 3Ders: Singapore researchers unveil 3D-printed customized pills

While some scientists are engaged in the creation of 3D-printed biological tissue, and others – medical instruments that can be used in hospitals around the world, researchers from the National University of Singapore have made a great breakthrough in the field of 3D-printed medicines. They have developed an inexpensive way to produce tablets with a certain dose of medication and the rate of its release, prescribed individually to a particular patient.

In the course of their research, Singapore scientists have found a way to personalize the release rate of the drug, which they have not yet learned to control. Today, tablets are manually divided into parts and taken throughout the day to achieve uniform absorption of the drug into the blood. Hormones, for example, must be taken at regular intervals. But patients often forget to take the medicine and get confused in taking the drug, especially if the doctor prescribed to drink several medications at once. Moreover, there are also medications that need to be taken according to a certain scheme, for example, arthritis medication must first be taken in large quantities, and then gradually reduce the dose. There are also such medications, the omission of which can simply be dangerous to health.

The possibilities of modern technologies for the production of medicines are very limited. The first and most important problem: the life span of tablets is short, they quickly break down and collapse. However, the Singapore researchers were able to find a way to make drugs inexpensive and simple with a controlled release rate. The new method was developed by Associate Professor So Xio Ling and graduate student Sun Yayuan from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Technology at the Faculty of Engineering. In theory, using this method, you can achieve any rate of absorption of the drug.

The uniqueness of the new method of tablet production is that they are not created layer by layer. On the contrary, they may consist of several different components enclosed in a single polymer shell, the shape of which determines the rate of release. For example, from a shell with five teeth, the drug is released in five stages. Theoretically, manufacturers will be able to achieve any release rate by simply changing the shape of the shell. It can even contain several different medications. It is enough for a doctor to draw the desired shape in a special program for modeling 3D printed templates. It is easy to work with, and it does not require special knowledge in modeling.

It is also worth mentioning that the researchers used a $2,000 3D printer, which significantly reduces the cost of the production process. This is a great, and the main real alternative to the usual way of producing tablets or photolithography. A 3D printer is needed to make a silicone mold, which is filled with a liquid containing a drug. When it hardens, a pill with one (or several) notches is obtained. The remaining space can be filled again with the liquid with the medicine. And so continue until the desired result. The required release rate is achieved due to the final shape and number of recesses of the tablet.

Now a team of researchers from the National University of Singapore is looking for new combinations of materials to improve the effectiveness of 3D-printed drugs, and is also trying to attract industrial partners to cooperate. The study was published in the journal Advanced Materials at the end of 2015 (Yajuan Sun, Siowling Soh, Printing Tablets with Fully Customizable Release Profiles for Personalized Medicine – VM), a patent application has already been filed. Professor So sincerely hopes that such 3D printers will soon appear in all medical institutions in Singapore.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  31.05.2016