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This 3D-printed Pill Can Scan The Gut Microbiome

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The role of the gut microbiome has been the focus of countless studies recently as scientists have been discovering how it can protect us from certain diseases, as well as cause them. For example, a link has been made between the gut and Alzheimer’s disease. That link leads researchers to concentrate on the development of technologies that could sample the microbiome constitution in vivo. What they came up with is a 3D printed pill that can sample bacteria as it passes through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

This fancy 3D printed pill was designed by an international team of researchers led by Sameer Sonkusale from Tufts University. While conventional methods analyzing fecal DNA and metabolites provide little information about the environment upstream of the distal colon, their pill remedies this. It combines an osmotic sampler with microfluidic channels that can profile bacterial species inhabiting the gut. It does this by pulling the bacteria into helical channels by an osmotic ‘pump’ in the pill where it remains collected in microfluidic channels.

The pill is engineered to specifically sample gut bacteria and stay inactive in the stomach. It is covered with a pH-sensitive coating that only dissolves in the higher pH environment of the small intestine. Once it passes the stomach the coating dissolves.

When the coating is dissolved, the osmotic pressure that has been built up across the membrane causes gastric fluid to be sucked into the helical channels of the pill – bringing with it the bacteria. Bacteria remains trapped in the channels, while water diffuses across the membrane of the osmotic pump to the salt chamber and excess salt water discharges through the exit nozzle.

Bacteria in the gut are pulled into helical channels by an osmotic 'pump' in the 3d printed pill and collected in microfluidic channels
Bacteria in the gut are pulled into helical channels by an osmotic ‘pump’ in the pill and collected in microfluidic channels. (Credit: Nano Lab, Tufts University)

To make this clever device even more efficient, they embedded a small neodymium magnet in it which allows the pill to be held in place externally once it reaches the desired location, in order to sample more from that region.

The researchers used realistic in vitro models to validate the pill’s sampling performance, testing it in vivo in pigs and primates. The in vitro investigations revealed that bacteria motion pattern (motility) and the solvent pH had no impact on the pill sampling performance. They also showed the pill could move inside the GI tract under realistic flow conditions through experiments with intestines from freshly dissected pigs.

Lastly, they tested the pill’s ability to sample gut luminal content in a weaned pig and in four macaques. The bacteria recovered from the pills’ collection channels were very similar to the profile of samples recovered from the surrounding intestinal lumen or feces. However, there were extra bacteria found in the pill which was absent from feces. These findings highlight the pills’ ability to sample the entire GI tract. The research has been published in Advanced Intelligent Systems.

The post This 3D-printed Pill Can Scan The Gut Microbiome appeared first on Intelligent Living.


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