Electronic Implants Will Soon Replace Your Daily Pills at a Click

Forgetting daily medication as prescribed by your doctor can cause serious health problems. Don’t worry, a team of Swedish scientists are working on electronic implants that can one day replace daily pills and deliver drugs at a click.

How Does the Electronic Implant Work?

The team from the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden invented a material which uses electrical signals to release molecules.

The new material, called a polymer surface, produces doses of a drug at regular intervals so patients no longer need to remember to take their pills, revealed the study published in the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie.

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‘Forgetting your daily pills happens. But, don’t worry, scientists are now working on electronic implants that can one day replace daily pills and deliver drugs to patients by just pressing a button.’
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It could be used to make futuristic implants which produce the medicine dose at regular intervals.

"Our polymer surfaces offer a new way of separating proteins by using electrical signals to control how they are bound to and released from a surface, while not affecting the structure of the protein," said lead author Gustav Ferrand-Drake del Castillo.

As per some experts, around 50 percent of people fail to take the medications they are prescribed correctly - risking their health because they are unwilling or unable to follow the dosage schedule, Daily Mail reported.

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Researchers say a prototype of the implant, which would be more targeted than a pill and reducing chances of side effects, could be available within a year. It could be smaller than a centimetre across and operated using a smartphone app.

"You can imagine a doctor, or a computer programme, measuring the need for a new dose of medicine in a patient, and a remote-controlled signal activating the release of the drug from the implant located in the very tissue or organ where it’s needed," del Castillo said.

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The implant only requires a small amount of power, as the polymer on the surface of the electrode is very thin, so it can react to a tiny electrochemical pulse.

The researchers also noted that the material can cope with changes in acidity, such as those found in the digestive system, if it were used there.

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"Being able to control the release and uptake of proteins in the body, with minimal surgical interventions and injections is a unique and useful property," del Castillo said.

Source-IANS