‘Smart Capsule’ Extends the Path of a Pill
The capsule is about two centimeters in length.
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA Purdue University researcher says a basic technology used worldwide every day hasn’t changed since the 19th century. It’s the science of pill-taking, and Purdue Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Dr. Babak Ziaie is working to improve how drugs are delivered in the digestive track.
The vast majority of medications are absorbed in the stomach and small intestine, but Ziaie says there’s great value—and great demand—for capsules to avoid absorption until they reach the large intestine. He’s developed a tiny device that uses a magnet, a switch and a rubber band to go where average medications have never gone before.
“There’s a lot of interest in the pharmaceutical industry in being able to deliver drugs that are usually damaged or degraded in the stomach or small intestine,” says Ziaie. “Bioactive agents are typically degraded by enzymes that are active in the small intestine; if you can release these drugs in the large intestine, which lacks a bunch of the enzymes, they can be absorbed.”
Dubbed the “smart capsule,” Ziaie says it also holds great value for treating medical conditions that are specific to the large intestine, such as ulcerative colitis or Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), a life-threatening infection in which the body loses natural microbes needed to fight infection.
The capsule, about two centimeters in length, consists of two basic compartments; one has the drug loaded into it, and the other a tiny electronic component that is charged before use. The patient would wear a magnet near their waist; as the capsule makes the 12-hour journey to the large intestine, it eventually passes the magnet near the junction where the small intestine ends and the large intestine begins. The magnet activates a switch in the capsule, triggering the release of a spring-loaded mechanism that opens the device to deliver the medication.
“The junction [of the small and large intestine] is fixed in most people in the lower right quadrant of the stomach, right over the appendix,” says Ziaie. “Even when someone is obese, that location is constant in most people.”
While Ziaie says much of his research centers on the inner workings of medical devices, he says collaborating with the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) has been critical in developing the biological side of the technology.
“We are the premier engineering program in the state, and there are lots of innovations at Purdue,” says Ziaie. “We don’t have a medical school, but we work with IUSM to try to find good applications and find the problems that need to be resolved. We have the technology, and they know the problems.”
Ziaie is working with the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization to map the best route for commercialization, and his team is currently in the process of securing a patent. Ziaie says he’s in discussions with pharmaceutical companies that are interested in licensing the smart capsule, but starting his own company is also a consideration.
The device will need to earn approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but he’s hopeful that will “go a bit faster,” because the capsule is less complex than devices that are implanted, for example.
“I’m most excited about getting this device to the clinic—before I retire, I’d like to have a couple of devices headed to the clinic,” says Ziaie. “My ultimate goal is getting this device to clinicians and to patients; that’s really the most rewarding aspect of the project for me. It might take a couple of years, but I’m optimistic.”
