Pill coated with tiny needles may replace injections

Researchers have devised a novel drug capsule coated with tiny needles that allows the drug to be taken orally instead of as an injection.

According to the scientists at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the needles on the capsule can inject drugs directly into the lining of the stomach after the capsule is swallowed. In animal studies, the team found that the capsule delivered insulin more efficiently than injection under the skin, and there were no harmful side effects as the capsule passed through the digestive system.

Although the researchers tested the capsule with insulin, they anticipated that it could be most useful for delivering biopharmaceuticals such as antibodies, that are used to treat cancer and autoimmune disorders like arthritis and Crohn's disease. This class of drugs, known as "biologics," also includes vaccines, recombinant DNA, and RNA.

Scientists have tried designing microparticles and nanoparticles that can deliver biologics, but such particles are expensive to produce and require a new version to be engineered for each drug.

The capsule designed by Schoellhammer, Traverso, and colleagues would serve as a platform for the delivery of a wide range of therapeutics, prevent degradation of the drugs, and inject the payload directly into the lining of the GI tract. Their prototype acrylic capsule, 2 centimeters long and 1 centimeter in diameter, includes a reservoir for the drug and is coated with hollow, stainless steel needles about 5 millimeters long, newsoffice.mit.edu reported.

Furthermore, the researchers have tested it in pigs, they found that It took more than a week for the capsules to move through the entire digestive tract, and no traces of tissue damages were seen, supporting the potential safety of this novel approach and also found that the micro-needles successfully injected insulin into the lining of the stomach, small intestine, and colon, causing the animals' blood glucose levels to drop. This reduction in blood glucose was faster and larger than the drop seen when the same amount of glucose was given by subcutaneous injection.

The research paper was published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.