Microchips run our cars, washing machines, and even our coffee machines. Soon they could also do without medicine. The first study of this approach in people shows that microchips implanted under the skin deliver regular doses of a drug to fight against osteoporosis, the bone weakening common condition in the elderly. Ultimately, this technology can help treat a variety of diseases, including multiple sclerosis and cancer.
The delivery devices Automated drugs are already widespread. Insulin pumps that release doses automatically spared many diabetics from painful and heavy routine of daily insulin injections. But patients with osteoporosis taking the medication teriparatide bone-boosting, a version of parathyroid hormone, have yet to be injected daily. Even former soldiers are reluctant, said Robert Adler, head of endocrinology at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, who was not involved in the study. "You have people who were in foxholes get shot and you wave a hand to them, and they run the other way," he said. So even if teriparatide is the only drug on the market that builds bone, "its use is limited by the disadvantages of the administration," said Michael E. Lewiecki, a researcher of osteoporosis at the University of new Mexico of medicine in Albuquerque, who also was not part of the study.
A team that included biomedical engineer Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues of microchips, a company based in Waltham, Massachusetts, was a possible solution: a microchip that releases a certain amount of the drug after receiving a radio signal from a computer. Tucking two of these chips and electronics to run them in a protective case created a device the size of a computer flash drive. The team slipped the devices just under the abdominal skin in seven elderly women who had osteoporosis. The procedure requires only local anesthesia, and none of the beneficiaries reported that the implant was embarrassing, says Langer. "They did not even know it's there."
During 20 days, the researchers prompted chips to release doses of teriparatide and took blood samples to measure the effects. Compared to injections, slightly smaller units produced, but less variable pulses of drug in the blood, the researchers report online today in Science Translational medicine . the doses appeared to work. patients had blood levels high of P1NP, a molecule that indicates bone building. And they showed no signs of kidney damage, a possible side effect of the drug. Langer said the results show that "for the first time in human beings, you can ... make the administration of remote control drugs over a long period of time. "
" We have to consider these interesting but preliminary data, "says Adler. Lewiecki is also cautiously optimistic. Both researchers agree that developers need to demonstrate that the devices operate over a longer period of time and can carry enough of the drug, they need to be replaced frequently. Researchers are studying other ways to administer the drug, such as patches users can apply to their skin, said Lewiecki. So if patients will opt for implanted devices will likely depend on how small they are and how often they need to be changed, he said.
Langer said the company is working on chips that could contain up to 400 doses, so that implants can work for a year without needing to be replaced. Similar chips might be able to provide medicines for cancer treatment or release painkillers. Future devices could also be interactive, sending updates on the condition of patients to their doctors, which could then tweak the dosage. "We entered the Star Trek time," said Langer.
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