Following in the footsteps of its sister technology, wearable devices, ingestible technology is paving the way for healthcare technology that enables medical professionals to quite literally see patients from the inside out.

Capsule-sized smart-pill technology promises to be a boon for the healthcare industry, potentially offering healthcare professionals insight into the darkest reaches of the human body.

For now, ingestible technology and its biocompatible material can offer patients non-invasive remote monitoring, drug delivery, imaging and even diagnostics.

Follow along with GlobalSpec as we explore some of the ingestible technology taking stock of our insides, so to speak.

Checks up on gut health

An artificial intelligence (AI)-driven system for tracking tiny ingestible devices designed to monitor disease markers in the gut has been developed by a team of scientists at the University of Southern California (USC). According to the researchers, the system enables users to monitor their gastrointestinal (GI) tract health at home via their smartphones.

Source: Khan Lab at USC

Making up the system is a wearable coil that produces a magnetic field interacting with sensors embedded in the ingested pill using AI. The team explained that the AI enables the users to identify the location of the pill as it travels through the GI tract.

The team added that the wearable coil generates an invisible magnetic field around the body. As the pill travels through the GI system, it will detect changes in this field, which the body doesn’t prevent.

Further, the system relies on optical gas-sensing membranes to monitor 3D real-time concentrations of ammonia, which is a key indicator of bacteria linked to ulcers and gastric cancer.

Breaks down alcohol

An ingestible protein-based gel capable of breaking down alcohol in the GI system — thereby promising to reduce harm to the body and minimize the side effects brought on by alcohol consumption — has been developed by a team of scientists at ETH Zurich.

Source: Northstar Behavioral Health

Alcohol undergoes a series of chemical reactions within the body with acetaldehyde being the first product formed during alcohol metabolism in the liver. Because it is toxic, acetaldehyde can result in health issues such as liver damage.

As such, the scientists developed an ingestible gel that promises to avoid this process and instead transform alcohol into harmless acetic acids.

“The gel shifts the breakdown of alcohol from the liver to the digestive tract. In contrast to when alcohol is metabolized in the liver, no acetaldehyde is produced as an intermediate product,” the scientists explained.

Decreases appetite

Engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an ingestible vibrating device that mimics the sense of fullness a person experiences after eating a large meal.

The ingestible capsule — which is intended to help with appetite control and subsequently, weight loss — replicates the phenomenon that occurs after a subject consumes a large meal.

Source: MIT

According to the researchers, when a person is full, the stomach becomes distended and specialized cells dubbed mechanoreceptors detect the stretching that accompanies distention and subsequently signals to the brain via the vagus nerve. Consequently, the brain encourages insulin production as well as the production of hormones such as C-peptide, Pyy and GLP-1 — all of which work together to digest food and impart the feeling of fullness that encourages the person to stop eating. Simultaneously, levels of ghrelin, a hunger-promoting hormone, decrease.

To mimic this phenomenon, the capsule is designed to vibrate once in the stomach, thereby activating the stretch receptors that sense when the stomach is distended, thus giving the imaginary sense of fullness.

Delivers meds

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a robotic pill-like device that can successfully pass through the harsh environs of the stomach to deliver payloads of medicine.

The so-called RoboCap can reportedly pass through the acidic environments of the stomach, withstand degradation by enzymes, penetrate the mucus membrane of the small intestine — all of which serve as obstacles to current drug delivery methods — to deliver medications.

Source: Brigham and Women's Hospital

During tests in the lab using a swine model, the gelatinous coating of the orally ingestible robotic drug delivery capsule dissolved in the stomach upon ingestion. Further, the small intestine activated the RoboCap so that it would vibrate and rotate, thereby clearing the mucus in the small intestine, according to its developers. Once cleared, the capsule reportedly delivered its payload — insulin and the antibiotic vancomycin, which is typically delivered intravenously — to the small intestine where the payload is absorbed.

Behaves like a dosimeter

A capsule-shaped swallowable X-ray dosimeter — an instrument used to measure ionizing radiation exposure — has been designed by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National University of Singapore and Tsinghua University (China). According to its developers, the device estimates radiation doses administered during radiotherapy, based on radioluminescence and temperature via a neural network-based regression model.

The researchers explained that by internally measuring pH and temperature, the device can evaluate the dose absorbed during radiotherapy for gastric cancer and it can also be used to monitor treatment for assorted malignancies. The capsule is made up of a flexible optical fiber encapsulated with X-ray persistent nanoscintillators, a polyaniline film and a wireless miniaturized luminescence readout system.

Monitors vitals

Dubbed the Vital Monitoring (VM) pill, the MIT device is comprised of a range of integrated circuits and electronic sensors including a microcontroller and an accelerometer. Additionally, the “pill" is powered by two silver oxide button cell batteries and it incorporates two custom-printed circuit boards and a magnet-sensing circuit for power control.

Further, the pill, which measures 9 mm in diameter and is composed of biocompatible polyether ether-ketone plastic, communicates wirelessly with a receiver connected to a laptop that runs both data acquisition and analysis software​.

Recovers lost items

Also from MIT (and the University of Sheffield and Tokyo Institute of Technology) is an origami-inspired robot that unfolds in the stomach once ingested to retrieve swallowed objects. According to the researchers, the untethered device is able to accomplish the retrieval of objects — for instance, a button battery — because it is propelled by stick-slip motion and steered by external magnetic forces.

The capsule and the unfolded origami device. Source: Melanie Gonick/MIT

The team suggests that in addition to removing foreign objects that have been swallowed by mistake, the origami-inspired robot might also be used to treat internal wounds or for targeted drug delivery applications.

The developers created the swallowable device by placing a piece of biocompatible material between two structural layers of dried pig intestine, which shrinks when heated. Once swallowed, the capsule surrounding the robot will dissolve and the structure will subsequently expand into a rectangular shape featuring accordion folds perpendicular to its long axis while a magnet located in one of the forward folds enables external control of the device. The robot also relies on this same magnet to retrieve the lost items.