Are you someone who dreads needles? Well, there’s good news for you! Scientists have drawn inspiration from squids to create a revolutionary needle-free device for injecting drugs deep into the body’s organs.
By mimicking the high-pressure liquid jets used by squids, Traverso and his team have developed a microjet device that can deliver drugs like insulin with precision. Just like how squids propel liquid through their siphons, this device can direct medication accurately towards specific targets within the body, as reported in Nature on November 20th.
To reach vital organs without using needles, the microjet is attached to a capsule that travels through the gastrointestinal tract. While other ingestible drug delivery devices exist, many still rely on needles. The combination of tiny robotics and microjets provides a safer option.
“Balancing jet force and safety was one of our biggest challenges,” says Traverso. The team designed a capsule around the microjet that dissolves at specific pH levels to target different parts of the body effectively. By adjusting jet pressure based on tissue delicacy and thickness, they successfully injected drugs into various organs such as the stomach, colon, and esophagus using gravity to aid in distribution. Testing on pigs and dogs showed no safety concerns.
2024-12-09 09:00:00
Originally published on www.sciencenews.org