Could an «electro-capsule» help control hunger? – breaking latest news

A capsule that you throw down like a pill but contains no drugs because an electroceutic, a electric drug: through minimal currents it can modulate the release of the hormone produced by the stomach which governs the sense of hunger and could therefore prove useful in case of metabolic, gastrointestinal, neuropsychiatric diseases. Not (entirely) science fiction, but a prototype of an electro-capsule that is being tested in animals and was created by bioengineers from the University of New York in Abu Dhabi.

Experimental prototype

The inspiration came from a reptile that lives in the Australian desert, the thorny devilwith the skin capable of absorbing water from the environment: researchers have created a capsule that can absorb fluids and covered in a material compatible with aqueous solutions, capable of navigating gastric fluids to come into contact with the stomach tissue and stimulate it through electrodeswhich through minimal currents are able to control the release of the ghrelin, the hunger hormone. In this way, once ingested, the capsules can interfere with the hormonal regulation of appetite, modulating it significantly and with a repeatable effect, according to animal experiments: the capsules, fed by batteries harmless when swallowedcan electrically stimulate the tissue for about twenty minutes and are then expelled.

The electroceuticals

The results of the first experiments, published in Science Roboticsare encouraging and pointing new, possible avenues for the therapies of the future: the capsules are in fact electroceuticals, or drugs that they use electrical stimulation instead of biochemical interactions as happens with the active ingredients of traditional pharmacology. These are treatments that could, for example, overcome some limitations related to hormonal therapies, which are often not very available and effective if taken orally: going to directly interfere with the release of hormones where this occurs, through an interaction with the nervous circuits, could prove effective in metabolic, neuropsychiatric or gastrointestinal diseases. Electroceutics is emerging as the next frontier of neuromodulation – says Khalil Ramadi, director of the Advanced Neuroengineering Laboratory at the University of New York in Abu Dhabi and coordinator of the investigation -. The capsule is the first electroceutical that can be swallowed and regulate neurohormonal circuits non-invasively; in the future, systems designed for specific applications and which allow gastric stimulation even beyond the very short term could be created. In short, for the moment it is an intriguing idea and not yet possible to have a lasting clinical effect with electro-pills; in the future, however, they could be a useful tool for diseases in which it is necessary to modulate the levels of hormones produced in the gastrointestinal tract.