An ingestible self-orienting system for oral delivery of macromolecules

Delivering fragile drugs to the gut Oral delivery is the simplest and least invasive way to deliver many pharmaceuticals, but many drugs and medications, including insulin, cannot survive passage through the stomach or the gastrointestinal tract. Abramson et al. developed an ingestible delivery vehicle that could self-reorient from any starting position so as to attach to the gastric wall. Encapsulation of a spring in a sugar casing allowed for triggered actuation for the delivery of biomolecules. The approach successfully provided active insulin delivery in pigs. Science , this issue p. 611