pH Precise Drug Release in the Stomach
To treat stomach lesions associated with H. pylori infections, doctors give proton pump inhibiting drugs before administering antibiotics. The pump inhibitors, however, may lose effectiveness before reaching the disease sites. University of California at San Diego researchers, to improve this situation, have developed “micromotors” that perform better than the proton pump inhibitors. “The micromotors have a magnesium center wrapped in titanium dioxide that reacts with stomach acids, producing hydrogen bubbles that propel the tiny devices to swim around the stomach. The central core has an antibiotic stuck to it and a coating of chitosan polymer that makes the micromotors stick to the walls of the stomach. The micromotors continue reacting with the surrounding gastric acids until a predetermined pH level is reached, at which point the antibiotic is allowed to pop off and safely begin targeting the bacteria it came to kill.” MORE
Image Credit: Laboratory for Nanobioelectronics at UC San Diego