New edible sensor helps TB patients take their medicinesingestible

An ingestible sensor that allows doctors to remotely monitor patients’ intake of tuberculosis medicine could revolutionise treatment and cure of the deadly disease in India which has the highest TB burden in the world, a study suggests. A randomised controlled trial, published in the journal , involved the sensor connected to a paired mobile.

The trial, conducted in California, produced superior results to directly observed therapy (DOT), where a healthcare worker watches the patient swallow medication. Researchers from the University of California in the US suggest that the technology could be a game changer in high prevalence countries where treatment adherence remains a stumbling block to eliminating TB.

They noted that TB is the world’s largest infectious disease killer, despite it being preventable, treatable and curable. In 2017, 10 million people globally fell ill with TB and 1.6 million died from the disease, the researchers said.

India has the highest TB burden in the world with one in four people affected by the disease residing in the country, they said. The trial demonstrates that Wirelessly Observed Therapy (WOT) was reported as highly accurate in recording medication ingestion (99.3 per cent), the researchers said.
WOT consists of an ingestion sensor composed of minerals, a patch worn on the torso and a paired mobile device. Patients with active TB using WOT were confirmed as taking 93 per cent of their daily prescribed doses as opposed to 63 per cent using DOT, they said.

All the 77 patients using WOT completed treatment, were cured, and preferred it to DOT, according to the researchers. Researchers said the system allowed patients to manage their own medication taking, preserving patient privacy and autonomy, but also enabled highly targeted treatment support from practitioners with permission.

“We are not doing people affected by TB justice when we have robust genomic diagnostic tests and the emergence of new antibiotic drugs that can cure TB but cannot guarantee consistent, convenient and private treatment support for them,” said Sara Browne, a professor at the University of California, who led the trial. 

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‘Ingestible sensor to help diagnose stomach disease’

The sensor can be designed to remain in the digestive tract for several weeks, sending continuous signals

Scientists have developed an ingestible sensor equipped with genetically engineered bacteria, that can diagnose bleeding in the stomach or other gastrointestinal problems.

 

This “bacteria-on-a-chip” approach combines sensors made from living cells with ultra-low-power electronics that convert the bacterial response into a wireless signal that can be read by a smartphone.
“By combining engineered biological sensors together with low-power wireless electronics, we can detect biological signals in the body in near real-time, enabling new diagnostic capabilities for human health applications,” said  an associate professor.

In the study, the researchers created sensors that respond to heme, a component of blood, and showed that they work in pigs. They also designed sensors that can respond to a molecule that is a marker of inflammation.

In the past decade, synthetic biologists have made great strides in engineering bacteria to respond to stimuli such as environmental pollutants or markers of disease.

Signals from the stomach
To make these bacteria more useful for real-world applications, the research team decided to combine them with an electronic chip that could translate the bacterial response into a wireless signal. “Our idea was to package bacterial cells inside a device. The cells would be trapped and go along for the ride as the device passes through the stomach,” the researcher said.

The sensor, which is a cylinder about 1.5 inches long, requires about 13 microwatt of power. The researchers equipped the sensor with a 2.7-volt battery, which they estimate could power the device for about 1.5 months of continuous use.

They tested the ingestible sensor in pigs and showed that it could correctly determine whether any blood was present in the stomach. The researchers anticipate that this type of sensor could be either deployed for one-time use or designed to remain in the digestive tract for several days or weeks, sending continuous signals. 

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New ingestible antibody to prevent allergy, asthma

Researchers have in a breakthrough developed a new ingestible or inhalable antibody that can prevent allergic reactions and asthma in adults, a finding that could pave way for a far more effective allergy medicine.

The antibody has a unique mechanisms through which it blocks the immune effect behind allergic reactions.

The antibody interacts in a complex biochemical process in the human body by which it prevents the human allergy antibody (IgE) from attaching to cells, thus keeping all allergic symptoms from occurring, the researchers said.

“We can now describe the interaction of this antibody with its target and the conformational changes very accurately. This allows us to understand, how it interferes with the IgE and its specific receptors on the immune cells of the body, which are responsible for releasing histamine in an allergic reaction,” said a researcher.

When exposed to external allergens, an allergic person produces high levels of IgE molecules.
The function of the antibody is that it interferes with binding of IgE to the two specific effector (CD23 and FceRI) on the immune cells, thereby making it impossible for the allergy molecule to bind.

Furthermore, the researchers have observed that the antibody also removes the IgE molecules even after binding to its receptors.

“Once the IgE on immune cells can be eliminated, it doesn’t matter that the body produces millions of allergen-specific IgE molecules. When we can remove the trigger, the allergic reaction and symptoms will not occur,” the researcher said.

In the laboratory, it took only 15 minutes to disrupt the interaction between the allergy molecules and the immune cells.

The researchers have conducted ex vivo experiments with blood cells from patients allergic to birch pollen and insect venom. However, the method can be transferred to virtually all other allergies and asthma, they said.

Because of its chemical structure, the new antibody might be inhaled or swallowed, and these new consumption methods will make easy, cheap and much and more comfortable for the patients to handle.

“It is a so called single domain antibody which easily produced in processes using only microorganisms. It is also extremely stable, and this provides new opportunities for how the antibody can be administered to patients,” the researcher said.

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New swallowable sensors to monitor human gut health

Scientists have successfully completed the first human trials of an ingestible capsule that can monitor gases in the gut in real time, potentially revolutionising the way stomach and colon disorders are diagnosed.

The capsule can uncover mechanisms in the body that have never been seen before, including a potentially new immune system, researchers said.

The new technology is a game-changer for the one-in-five people worldwide who will suffer from a gastrointestinal disorder in their lifetime. They could also lead to fewer invasive procedures like colonoscopies, they said.

The ingestible capsule developed by researchers detects and measures gut gases — hydrogen, carbon dioxides and oxygen — in real time. This data can be sent to a mobile phone.

“We found that the stomach releases oxidising chemicals to break down and beat foreign compounds that are staying in the stomach for longer than usual,” said a Dr.

“This could represent a gastric protection system against foreign bodies. Such an immune mechanism has never been reported before,” said the co-inventor of the capsule.

Another never before seen observation from the trial was that the colon may contain oxygen.

“Trials showed the presence of high concentrations of oxygen in the colon under an extremely high-fibre diet,” the Dr. said.

“This contradicts the old belief that the colon is always oxygen free. This new information could help us better understand how debilitating diseases like colon cancer occur,” he said.

The trials were conducted on seven healthy individuals on low- and high-fibre diets.

Results showed that the capsule accurately shows the onset of food fermentation, highlighting their potential to clinically monitor digestion and normal gut health.

The trials also demonstrated that the capsule could offer a much more effective way of measuring microbiome activities in the stomach, a critical way of determining gut health.

“Previously, we have had to rely on faecal samples or surgery to sample and analyse microbes in the gut,” the Dr. said.

“But this meant measuring them when they are not a true reflection of the gut microbiota at that time. Our capsule will offer a non-invasive method to measure microbiome activity,” he said. 

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