Gastroparesis, also called delayed gastric emptying, is a disorder in which the stomach takes too long to empty its contents. Normally, the stomach contracts to move food down into the small intestine for digestion. The vagus nerve controls the movement of food from the stomach through the digestive tract. Gastroparesis occurs when the vagus nerve is damaged and the muscles of the stomach and intestines do not work normally. Food then moves slowly or stops moving through the digestive tract.
Complications: If food lingers too long in the stomach, it can cause bacterial overgrowth from the fermentation of food. Also, the food can harden into solid masses called bezoars that may cause nausea, vomiting, and obstruction in the stomach. Bezoars can be dangerous if they block the passage of food into the small intestine. Gastroparesis can make diabetes worse by making blood glucose control more difficult. When food that has been delayed in the stomach finally enters the small intestine and is absorbed, blood glucose levels rise. Since gastroparesis makes stomach emptying unpredictable, a person’s blood glucose levels can be erratic and difficult to control.

In recent years with the development of smartpills, Philips has introduced a new smart pills that moniters temoarature and acidity as it travels down the digestive tract and release the drug cargo right at the site where action is needed. Scinetists say that this was developed to reduce dosages and side effects with monitering and trageted treatment.
The iPill, a plastic capsule that is to be taken with food or water, is intended to travel through the digestive system naturally, typically within about 24 hours, dispensing its medicine at specific locations along the way, van der Schaar said.
Localized drug delivery has advantages: it can mean smaller doses of a drug, as well as fewer problems when the drug travels through the body in the bloodstream. “The drugs might have fewer side effects while having a higher therapeutic value,” he said.
The smart pill is a plastic pill with microprocesser, batery, wireless radio and the drug. When this smartpill is made to travel across the length of gastric tract it records the variation the pH and the signels are forwared to the doctor through iPill and pH variation triggers the drug release to the site of action. Thereby eliminating the overdose and the side effects.
The bravo system, now being tested in animals but not yet in humans, may one day be used to treat digestive tract disorders like colitis and Crohn’s disease, said Dr. Peter van der Schaar, a gastroenterologist in Heerlen, Netherlands.

Researchers are trying to develop and use the novel systems for diagnosis, which is termed as ’smart pill’ that is inserted down the throat and temporarily fixed above the patient’s stomach to help diagnose if these patients are suffering from chronic heartburn.

Till today the only option patients have is a catheter tube inserted up their nose and down into the gullet to monitor pH levels. The test lasts for two days and patients sometimes found the catheter was uncomfortable and disruptive to their normal life. It is also less successful at diagnosing the condition.

Chronic heartburn, or reflux disease, is a common problem around the world and the health care expenses of $100 million a year is a treat to any county. It occurs when acid from the stomach flows back up into the gullet. If this happens regularly it can damage the gullet, or esophagus, and restrict a patient’s daily life. Symptoms include burning pain in the chest and sour tasting fluids in the mouth and neck. The problem has been hard to diagnose even using the traditional catheter method.

In response, doctors at St Thomas’ Hospital are now regularly using the Bravo probe which is a miniature pH capsule that is temporarily attached to the wall of the esophagus. The capsule transmits pH information wirelessly to a portable receiver worn by the patient on their waistband.

Placing the capsule only takes a few minutes and patients can eat, sleep, shower and engage in all normal activities over the 24-48 hour testing period. After this time the capsule detaches and harmlessly passes out of their body.

Dr Terry Wong, a Consultant Gastroenterologist, said: “This new equipment is making things much easier for our patients and improving accurate diagnoses. The patients have less discomfort when compared with older methods and because they have a more normal day with a typical diet our results are more accurate. Patients are going to see more and more of these minimally invasive high-tech diagnosing tools in the future.”

Annette, a lead learning mentor at a primary school, explained: “I was referred to St Thomas’ by my local hospital for further tests and the first step was to try to put a catheter down my nose. However it became stuck a few times, felt uncomfortable and caused me to gag. When they said we could try the Bravo probe I was relieved. I was sedated for the procedure and when I came round I felt completely fine and the probe had been fitted inside me. I was able to go to work at my school without any problems other than a few minor spasms in my stomach and after 96 hours I returned to have the final results taken. Following the assessment they diagnosed me with heartburn. Since then I’ve cut down my medication and altered my diet, and things are better. It hasn’t disappeared but it is a relief to know what the problem is and be able to manage it.”

Research team from Chinese academy of medical science in Beijing has uncovered a toxic effect of nanoparticles in the form of lung damage by associated use. This toxic effect of nanoparticles puts the cancer therapy and nano industries in danger and needs immediate attention. Understanding the mechanism of toxic effect will help in modulating the nanoparticles to prevent the possible toxic effects. Experts have indicated that a class of nanoparticles used in medicine, ployamidoamine dendrimers (PAMAMs), may cause lung damage by triggering a type of programmed cell death known as autophagic cell death.

In an experiment, they found how several types of PAMAMs killed human lung cells but found no evidence that the cells were dying by apoptosis, a natural and common type of cell death. In a subsequent experiment in mice, they injected an autophagy inhibitor in mice and later exposed the rodents to nanoparticles and found that it significantly ameliorated the lung damage and improved survival rates. This provides us with a promising lead for developing strategies to prevent lung damage caused by nanoparticles,” said the research leader.

A common non-toxic plant virus may soon become a nanocarrier for cyto-toxic drug delivery. A research team at North Caroline State University has modified a plant virus into a successful targeted drug delivery system with ability to deliver drug only to specific cell, leaving the surrounding tissue unaffected. The smart-bullets are one thousand times smaller then the width of a human hair, thus providing an advantage for effective chemotherapy with significantly reduced or with no side effects.
The researches state that the virus has the ability to survive outside the plant host and has a built-in space of few nanometer, which is able to carry drugs and target them to tumor tissues and cells. In this work the carrier has been deployed with a single protein which has the ability to identify the cancer cell and thus help in targeting the cell and drug release into the cancer cell. One of the co-invigilator of this work say that this plant virus is superior then other nano-particles due to their stability, manufacture ease and ability to target and carry the drug.
The calcium helps in keeping the drug enclosed in the virus; the calcium level in bloodstream is abundant. However the calcium leave in cancer cell is low. Thus, ensures the drug release into the cancer cell. The uniqueness of this virus is its toughness of its shell, i.e. it ensures that there is no drug leakage when its closed and it opens slowly in the target site resulting in controlled release of the drug and improves the drug efficacy. Hence, the research team believes that this virus will soon become common in chemotherapy treatment.

Small is promising when it comes to precise and targeted drug delivery to tiny tumours, cells and organs, but major concern is about the safety of particles. A research team from National cancer institute-U.S.A has designed illuminating nanoparticles of silicon that targets drug, releases at controlled rate and then breaks down into non-toxic metabolites.

Most of the nanocarriers tested in the labs are toxic in nature that makes them unsuitable for human use. However, this nanocarrier meets growing need for non-toxic nanocarrier to target the drug and has possibilities to make into clinic for use in humans. The properties of this nanocarrier have been published in Natural Materials.

The research team states that this is a first study of organ and tumour imaging in leaving animals using biodegradable silicon nanoparticles, the research team also say that these particles glow inherently, a most useful property commonly achieved by inclusion of toxic chemicals. The safety test conducted by this research group in mice indicated that, the tumours glow for several hours, then the intensity would decrease as the nanocarriers break down and were undetectable after 28days
The silicon flakes are made into thin wafers by application of electric current and then treated with ultrasound vibrations to smash to bits; this not only breaks them into nanoparticles, but also makes them glow red when ultraviolet light is passed through these particles. These glowing particles help physicians & surgeon to detect tiny tumours and ensure the removal of cancer tissues.

The team reports that these particles could help in targeted drug delivery of cyto-toxic drugs, as their study of doxorubicin on these particles indicated that the drug sticks to the pores and get released slowly as the silicon dissolved, thus allows health professionals to use smaller dose of the drug and leading to better health care as this will reduce the side effect of the cyto-toxic drugs.

The safety study on vulnerable organs like liver, spleen and kidney in mice, revealed that the metabolites of these nanocarriers were filter and excreted safely from the body with no toxic effects. Thus these particles with cyto-toxic drugs my soon hit the market.

Research indicates that Fasudil a drug used to treat strokes may help improve memory among middle aged people. The study reported that Fasudil significantly improved learning and memory in middle aged rats used in the study and has been published in Behavioral Neuroscience Journal Feb-2009.

A further proven study in Humans may help blunt the normal aging and enhance learning and memory through out the life. Fasudil has shown to be safe and well tolerated in humans; these findings and relative safety suggest that Fasudil has the potential to be a brain booster in humans.

Prominent neuroscientist and ethicists recently said in the same journal that usage of brain boosters in normal mentally competent adults is unethical. Brain booster’s usage to boost productivity and give people an edge in there work is like doping in the sports. And they also raised the question that “does workers need protection from there employers against the pressure to enhance”? However some researches say that aging is the worst disease and it happens to everybody and aging gracefully is a benefit for the mankind.

People around the world have been boosting / stimulating brain. From consuming coffee, ginko biloba pills or fish oil capsules with omega-3 fatty acids, with the hopes of gaining improved brain function. Can healthy people to opt for brain booster, those mainly used to treat memory impairments in aged people? According to a research team the answer is yes, and its a reasonable way to improve brain power in learning and working healthy adults. This voice of this team has been published in the journal Nature.

Some experts suggest that using such pills is unethical, they also have noted that some college students using brain boosters illegally to improve there studies, which may again lead to drug dependency.

The researches have made an apple for physicians, educators as well as regulators to participate in risk evaluation of brain booster’s usage and develop policies to govern the usage of such drug molecule.

Intelligent Pill (IPill) has been developed by Phillips, which contains microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pump and a drug reservoir to release medication in a specific region of the body. The IPill will measure the acidity to determine its location in GIT, and can release drug where it is needed. Its mainly useful in treatment of Crohn’s disease as it can release the drug directly to the location of the disease, indicating lowering of drug dose and side effects.

IPill can measure local temperature and report it wirelessly to an external receiver. The microprocessor turns on the drug pump to releases the drug at the specific site of GIT, where it can be well absorbed to provide required bioavailability and pharmacological action, thus sparing rest of the body from unnecessary exposure of the drug molecule. Hence it has potential of being used to deliver anti-cancer drugs to colon region of GIT.

The wireless transmitter in the IPill can measure temperature and the pH of its environment. Hence, helps the researchers to track its position in GIT.

The only problem with IPill is keeping this small smart devise out of water supply as it will travel through the GIT over course of a day or two and then reach sanitation.