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(Ivanhoe Newswire) Drugs unable to survive through the digestive track, such as insulin, are administered through more difficult routes including injection. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, are developing a new type of pill capable of delivering these drugs to the bloodstream through the gut.
Pills must go through the stomachs acid, and then to intestines filled with enzymes designed to break down molecules such as insulin. Aspirin is one of the drugs with the ability to survive such a route.
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Tejal A. Desai, who is leading the study, is designing a spiny-bead structure to fill with the drugs. The spines will be silicon nanowires that will stick to the hair-like cilia covering the cells lining the gut. Once the two stick together, the drug can be absorbed through the gut, into the bloodstream.
Desai has completed numerous studies on the beads, and currently is re-working the spikes geometry to better stick inside the gut. She says her new approach may potentially also offer the ability to deliver drugs to other parts of the body including nasal mucosal tissues, lungs, and the vagina.
SOURCE: Presented at a meeting of the scientific society AVS in San Jose, November 12, 2009
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