3D-Printed Gastroretentive Sustained Release Drug Delivery System by Applying Design of Experiment Approach

This study aimed to develop a novel oral drug delivery system for gastroretentive sustained drug release by using a capsular device. A capsular device that can control drug release rates from the inner immediate release (IR) tablet while floating in the gastric fluid was fabricated and printed by a fused deposition modeling 3D printer. A commercial IR tablet of baclofen was inserted into the capsular device. The structure of the capsular device was optimized by applying a design of experiment approach to achieve sustained release of a drug while maintaining sufficient buoyancy. The 2-level factorial design was used to identify the optimal sustained release with three control factors: size, number, and height of drug-releasing holes of the capsular device. The drug delivery system was buoyant for more than 24 h and the average time to reach 80% dissolution (T80) was 1.7–6.7 h by varying the control factors. The effects of the different control factors on the response factor, T80, were predicted by using the equation of best fit. Finally, drug delivery systems with predetermined release rates were prepared with a mean prediction error ≤ 15.3%. This approach holds great promise to develop various controlled release drug delivery systems.

Robotic magnetic steering and locomotion of capsule endoscope for diagnostic and surgical endoluminal procedures

SUMMARYThis paper describes a novel approach to capsular endoscopy that takes advantage of active magnetic locomotion in the gastrointestinal tract guided by an anthropomorphic robotic arm. Simulations were performed to select the design parameters allowing an effective and reliable magnetic link between the robot end-effector (endowed with a permanent magnet) and the capsular device (endowed with small permanent magnets). In order to actively monitor the robotic endoluminal system and to efficiently perform diagnostic and surgical medical procedures, a feedback control based on inertial sensing was also implemented. The proposed platform demonstrated to be a reliable solution to move and steer a capsular device in a slightly insufflated gastrointestinal lumen.