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CTOnews.com, May 14 (CTOnews.com)-A team of researchers at New York University at Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), inspired by the absorbent skin of the Australian thorn lizard, have developed an ingestible electrical stimulator that regulates the signaling pathway between the stomach and brain, affecting hunger levels and possibly treating a range of metabolic and neurological diseases. The study was published in the journal Scientific Robotics.

The electrical stimulator, known as the FLASH system, is a capsule-type device that stimulates gastric mucosal tissue directly through electrodes, affecting ghrelin, a hormone that promotes hunger. Inspired by the absorbent skin of the Australian thorn devil lizard Moloch horridus, FLASH uses a liquid absorption capsule coating with a grooved pattern and hydrophilic surface to bypass the gastric juice in the stomach and achieve direct contact between the electrode and tissue.

The signaling pathway between the stomach and the brain (gut axis) regulates a variety of physiological functions, including eating and emotional behavior. The existing drugs and surgical methods to regulate the enterocerebral axis are not accurate and invasive, and require a long recovery period and high risk. On the other hand, the FLASH system is a non-invasive and accurate method, which can be used to regulate the enterocerebral axis by oral capsule.

The team was led by Professor Khalil Ramadi, director of the Advanced Neuroengineering and Translational Medicine Laboratory at New York University in Abu Dhabi, and worked with Professor Giovanni Traverso of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Traverso is the co-author of the research paper, and James McRae, a graduate student at MIT, is the first author of the paper.

Professor Ramadi said: "Electrical stimulation therapy or electrical stimulators have become a new frontier of neuroregulation. The FLASH system is one of the first ingestible electrical stimulators that can precisely regulate neurohormone circuits while avoiding the discomfort that patients may experience during invasive treatment. Future ingestible electrical stimulator systems can be designed and customized according to specific applications, not limited to acute, short-term stomach irritations."

This paper introduces the development process of the FLASH system, which can be ingested, stimulated to the stomach, and then safely excreted from the body. The system, powered by an ingestible battery, can be stimulated for 20 minutes in large animals and excreted within two weeks. This paper also demonstrated the regulatory effect of FLASH system on ghrelin level. Gastric electrical stimulation (GES) with oral capsule can directly induce gastric mucosa to release ghrelin.

Currently, hormone drugs taken orally have low bioavailability, which is why drugs such as insulin need to be injected. FLASH can be taken orally, specifically targeting the gastric neurohormone circuit and regulating hormone levels in the blood. The device is expected to be used in a range of applications to treat metabolic, eating, gastrointestinal and neuropsychiatric disorders in a non-invasive manner with minimal miss effect.

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