MIT researchers have developed a new kind of stent that has been inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami that involves cutting paper to create 3D structures. The researchers have used the same idea to create a stent that can be used to deliver drugs to places inside the human body such as the G.I. tract, respiratory tract, or other tubular organs.
The new stent has a smooth coating of plastic etched with small “needles” that pop up when the tube is stretched. Those needles penetrate tissue and deliver the drugs containing microparticles. The drugs are then released slowly with time after the stent is taken out of the body.
Easy to treat inflammatory diseases
The researchers believe that this method of delivering a payload of drugs will make it easier to treat inflammatory diseases that have an impact on the G.I. tract. This involves several diseases such as inflammatory bowel or eosinophilic esophagitis.
Giovanni Traverso, who is an MIT assistant professor of mechanical engineering and gastroenterologist, believes that the new technology has the potential to be applied in any tubular organ.
He suggests the stent will give the ability to deliver drugs locally infrequently and scales up the chances of helping to resolve conditions. He also thinks the new stent could transform the way we think of patient care by enabling local but prolonged drug delivery.
Reducing risks of side effects
The biggest takeaway of using the MIT stent to deliver drugs in the body is to treat inflammatory diseases of the G.I. tract. The problem with injecting drugs is that they have systemic effects somewhere else within the body.
Traverso and the research team wanted to find a method to deliver drugs directly to the affected area, reducing the risk of side effects on other parts of the body. The tube uses two main elements — a soft and stretchable silicon-based rubber tube along with a plastic coating etched with needles. These needles pop up when the tube is stretched.
The team behind the idea notes that these kirigami stents were built to offer a reversible shape transformation letting them go from flat to three-dimensional for easy insertion and removal.
