NANOTECHNOLOGY

Gut-grabbing drug-delivery device is inspired by the hookworm

"About the size of a speck of dust, each one carries a pharmaceutical payload, and consists of a flat metal six-pointed body encased in a shape-changing chitosan film, which is in turn coated in a heat-sensitive paraffin wax."

https://newatlas.com/medical/theragrippers-drug-delivery-hookworm/

NANOTECHNOLOGY

Gastrointestinal-Resident, Shape-Changing Microdevices Extend Drug Release In Vivo


"For example, 6000 to 7000/kg theragrippers would deliver a therapeutic dosage of 10 mg of ketorolac to a 70-kg adult.
Approximately 2000 theragrippers in 1 ml of saline were administered"

"Because of their small size, theragrippers can also reach the smaller natural orifices of the body and thus have potential to be applied for other routes of drug administration like NASAL, URETHRAL, or VAGINAL, where sustained drug delivery across the mucus or delivery of capsules is challenging..."

"We note that, other than drug patches, alternate functional modules such as BIOSENSORS or MICROCHIPS could be attached to the theragrippers, opening new possibilities for smart GI-resident diagnostic, monitoring, and therapeutic devices."

SOURCE
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/44/eabb4133