SAN DIEGO — Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed micromotors loaded with antibiotics that can treat stomach infections without the use of proton pump inhibitors, a substance used to suppress gastric acid production.
Drugs used to treat bacterial infections and other diseases in the stomach are normally taken with proton pump inhibitors. However, the substance can cause adverse side effects such as diarrhea and fatigue or even depression when taken over longer period of in high doses.
"It's a one-step treatment with these micromotors, combining acid neutralization with therapeutic action," said Berta Esteban-Fernández de Ávila, a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego and a co-first author of the study.
According to the study, each micromotor has a magnesium core coated with a layer of titanium dioxide, antibiotic and an outer layer of chitosan, which is a polymer that enables the motors to stick to the stomach wall. The size of each micromotor is about half the width of human hair.
Once inside the stomach, the magnesium core reacts with gastric acid which generates a stream of hydrogen microbubbles. The microbubbles propel the vehicles inside the stomach, as well as temporarily increase the pH level to a desired level to release the cargo of antibiotics. The micromotors can be dissolved by gastric acid without leaving harmful residues.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
