Medicine via Bluetooth
People with chronic diseases, such as arthritis, diabetes, heart and vascular diseases, will someday be able to give up taking pills daily, receiving in return a controlled dose of a medicinal substance through an implant the size of a grape berry.
A group of engineers from the Houston Methodist Research Institute have successfully tested a nanochannel delivery system (nDS) that continuously releases predetermined doses of drugs for the treatment of chronic diseases. The NDS was remotely controlled using Bluetooth technology. The nDS device provides controlled release of the drug without the use of pumps, valves or a power source for one year without replenishment.
Some medications for chronic diseases bring the greatest benefit at night, when it is inconvenient for patients to take pills. NDS will significantly improve the quality of treatment by preventing missed appointments: a medical professional will be able to monitor treatment remotely.
The authors of the nDS – Alessandro Grattoni and his colleagues – claim a wide range of applications of the system in medical practice, starting with the prevention of HIV infection and ending with the treatment of cancer.
The remote-controlled delivery system is planned to be tested on the International Space Station in 2020, including to assess the quality of communication in extreme conditions.
The battery-powered implant contains a Bluetooth-enabled microchip that enables wireless communication. To prove that the technology works according to plan, the microchip was programmed for three different drug release schemes – standard, reduced and increased. At each setting, a certain voltage was applied to the silicon nanochannel inside the nDS to control the release of the drug.
Modern drug delivery devices (insulin, painkillers) work with a pumping mechanism or have external ports and, as a rule, need to be replenished every couple of months. The nDS device is implanted under the skin and uses a nanofluidic membrane manufactured using technology used in the semiconductor industry. The dosage and schedule of taking the drug can be adapted for each patient, the system works for many months and even a year before it is necessary to replenish stocks.
The developers hope that nDS will become widely available to doctors for remote treatment of patients in the framework of telemedicine. This would ensure both an improvement in the quality of life of patients and a reduction in the costs of the healthcare system.
Article by N. Di Trani et al. The remotely controlled nanofluidic implantable platform for tunable drug delivery is published in the journal Lab on a Chip.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Houston Methodist: Remote-controlled drug delivery implant size of grape may help chronic disease management.