Delivery of macromolecule therapeutics via jetting in the gastrointestinal tract

Biologics are a class of therapeutic substances composed of large and complex "macromolecules." Examples include vaccines, insulin, monoclonal antibodies, and allergens. However, a practical limitation of these molecules is that they are easily degraded by digestive processes and, as a result, are not generally considered effective for oral dosing. Therefore, these life-saving drugs are typically delivered via intravenous, intramuscular or subcutaneous injection. Oral administration, however, yields some of the highest patient adoption and adherence rates, and is often critical in determining a drug's efficacy. Herein lies the goal of this research: to make it possible to successfully deliver a broad set of biologics by mouth. To that end, needleless delivery, or jetting, has been identified as a promising approach. This work describes mechanistic modeling of jets, an empirical evaluation of jet interaction with gastrointestinal tissues, a millimeter-scale jetting device capable of autonomous drug delivery, and in-vivo studies in which the tested devices elicit substantial drops in blood glucose levels via the delivery of insulin across the gastric mucosa.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Arrick, Graham(Graham Philip)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Carlo Giovanni Traverso.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/130613

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/130613