Gastrointestinal devices such as stents, endoscopic tubes, balloons and drug delivery systems can help clinicians treat patients with a range of conditions. But currently available methods for triggering where and when drugs are released or when a device is triggered to disassemble or change shape are often slow, which can restrict the utility of such tools. Investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital and MIT are designing devices that can be triggered by the ingestion of a warm liquid to break down into smaller segments that can be excreted. In proof-of-concept experiments in preclinical models, the team tested two devices—one that could be induced to change conformation in the esophagus to exit following the delivery of a drug, and the other that could reside unperturbed in the stomach until intentionally triggered. The team's results are published in Science Translational Medicine.
* This article was originally published here
