The key to a full stomach may lie in a vibrating capsule, according to a weight-loss treatment study involving pigs and engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The pill, called Vibratory Ingestible BioElectronic Stimulator, or VIBES for short, stimulates nerve endings that detect stomach expansion, tricking the brain into thinking the stomach is full.
“The capsule, about the size of a large vitamin, houses a small motor that begins to vibrate when it reaches the stomach, stimulating the organ’s stretch receptors,” according to the MIT Technology Review magazine.
The researchers found that animals given the drug 20 minutes before eating stimulated the release of hormones that signaled satiety and reduced their food intake by about 40%, according to a news release.
“For someone who wants to lose weight or control their appetite, they could take it before every meal,” said Shriya Srinivasan, PhD, a former MIT graduate student and postdoc who is now an assistant professor of bioengineering at Harvard University. “This could be really interesting because it would provide an option that could minimize the side effects that we see with other drug treatments out there.”
Srinivasan is the lead author of the new study, which appeared Friday in Science Advances, an “open access” journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
A new vibration pill from MIT is expected to be a breakthrough in weight loss. Scientific advances
The current version of VIBES is designed to vibrate for 30 minutes after reaching the stomach, but researchers plan to explore the possibility of it staying there longer, with the ability to be turned on or off wirelessly.
During animal testing, the pills passed through the digestive tract in about four to five days.
“The animals did not show any signs of obstruction, perforation, or other negative impacts while the pill was in their digestive tract,” the MIT statement said.
During animal testing, the pills passed through the digestive tract in about four to five days. Scientific advances
VIBES researchers will now explore the possibility of scaling up manufacturing of the capsules, “which could enable clinical trials in humans.”
Nowadays, celebrities and common people are turning to drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro to lose weight.
Mounjaro and Ozempic were approved by federal health officials to lower blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes. However, given their weight-loss effects, both drugs were also used “off-label” to treat obesity. , especially when Wegovy was hard to get.
Wegovy and Ozempic have the same active ingredient, semaglutide, but have different FDA-approved dosages and intended uses.
Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy was approved in 2021 by the FDA for chronic weight management.
At the time, it was the first drug approved since 2014 for long-term weight management and quickly gained popularity.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn