Ingestible devices for long-term gastrointestinal residency: a review

Abstract

Ingestible devices have been gaining attention from the medical community due to their noninvasive use in diagnostics and treatment of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. However, their passive locomotion limits their GI residency period. Ingestible sensors residing in the GI tract are capable of providing continuous data, while long-acting ingestible drug delivery systems can reduce medication nonadherence. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art, long-term ingestible devices (LTIDs). Additionally, this review summarizes the current status of ingestible devices that persist in the GI tract for a prolonged period, as well as their inhabitance mechanisms and applications. Also included are relevant information about the GI structure and design considerations for understanding the significance and challenges associated with LTIDs. Finally, we discuss several potential applications of the LTIDs for therapeutic intervention in the GI tract and monitoring the physiology and pathophysiology of the GI tract for an extended period.

Biomedical IoT: Enabling Technologies, Architectural Elements, Challenges, and Future Directions

“…One-hundred percent sensitivity and specificity was achieved two hours after device administration. Ingestible biosensors have potential to be used outside of gastrointestinal monitoring; According to [ 81 ], there have been usecases of ingestible biosensors being used for areas such as drug discovery and obesity treatment.…”

Administration strategies and smart devices for drug release in specific sites of the upper GI tract

“…These were demonstrated successful to improve stability, to convey clinical relevant doses (up to 150 µg) and to achieve efficient in vivo transfection/translation by limiting relevant degradation upon injection. The piercing DDSs that can be considered at the most advanced stage of development is the robotic capsule RaniPill™ from Rani Therapeutics, intended for the delivery in the small intestine [118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125]. It entails a hydroxypropyl methylcellulose-based capsule coated with a gastroresistant film and containing a microsyringe.…”

Wireless soft millirobots for climbing three-dimensional surfaces in confined spaces

“…Untethered soft miniature robots could also realize cargo delivery and manipulation functions for potential applications, such as biofluid pumping (11) and drug delivery (12)(13)(14). However, existing wireless soft miniature robots still lack the ability of climbing, reversible controlled surface adhesion, and long-term retention (15) on complex and unstructured three-dimensional (3D) surfaces, limiting their operation space and maneuverability. Once equipped with the ability to climb complex 3D surfaces in confined and enclosed spaces, they could reach previously inaccessible locations for environmental monitoring and exploration by distributing miniaturized wireless electronic devices (16) and even reach the disease sites inside the human body and perform minimally invasive biomedical functions, which are impossible or extremely challenging for other locomotion modes (7).…”