MIT likens a brand new vibrating capsule to ingesting a glass stuffed with water previous to consuming. Dieticians advocate the latter as a technique for sending to your mind to simulate the feeling of being full. The researchers behind the brand new undertaking additional recommend it as a future various to surgical procedure and GLP-1s. The latter, which incorporates semaglutides like Ozempic and Wegovy, are each extraordinarily well-liked and prohibitively costly, owing largely to pharma IP legal guidelines.

MIT’s capsule has seen some laboratory success. Giving check animals the capsule 20 minutes earlier than consuming lowered their consumption by round 40%, per the group. Just like the glass of water trick, the capsule stimulates mechanoreceptors, which ship a sign to the mind by way of the vagus cranial nerve. As soon as activated, the mind kicks off the manufacturing of insulin, GLP-1, C-peptide and Pyy hormones, reducing starvation whereas ramping up the digestion course of.

“The behavioral change is profound, and that’s utilizing the endogenous system fairly than any exogenous therapeutic,” affiliate professor Giovanni Traverso notes. “We now have the potential to beat a number of the challenges and prices related to supply of biologic medication by modulating the enteric nervous system.”

The capsule, which is roughly the dimensions of a normal multi-vitamin, incorporates a vibrating motor, powered by a silver oxide battery. After reaching the abdomen, gastric acid dissolves the skin layer and completes the circuit, kickstarting the vibration.

Past efficacy, the group is working to find out the system’s security. That requires a technique for ramping up manufacturing and eventual human testing. “At scale, our system might be manufactured at a fairly cost-effective value level,” says post-doc researcher, Shriya Srinivasan.

Capsule-based know-how remedies have been a scorching class in recent times, as researchers discover ingestible sensors and even micro-robotic methods.