Toto je jeden z drobných, ale důležitých mezníků ve vývoji medicíny:
In a paper published online on Thursday in Science Translational Medicine, Robert Farra and his colleagues described the first clinical trial of an implanted microchip that delivers medicine. Dr Farra is the president of the aptly named MicroCHIPS, a firm in Massachusetts that hopes to transform the way that patients receive drugs. Many patients fail to take their medicine as prescribed, a problem that will grow worse as chronic disease becomes more common. An implanted device would ensure that delinquent patients take their medicine without even realising it.
In this first trial, Dr Farra tested microchips in eight women with osteoporosis. Each chip had 20 tiny reservoirs filled with a drug usually delivered by injection. Each reservoir was covered with a thin membrane that would melt when an electric current was applied, releasing the drug into the body. The idea was to wirelessly program the chip to release a dose from one reservoir each day for 20 days. Implanted in each woman’s abdomen, the foreign gadget prompted the body to form a fibrous capsule around it. But the chip nevertheless seemed to work, releasing the drugs, which then penetrated the capsule and moved into the bloodstream.
Dál se v článku praví, že cesta ke schválení takové léčby bude ještě dlouhá,
MicroCHIPS se chce ucházet o souhlas FDA nejdříve za dva roky. Popsaná technologie je překvapivě jednoduchá a zdá se, že nemá vůbec nic společného s nanotechnologiemi, o nichž se v souvislosti s dávkovacími aparáty často mluví. Tohle je přízemnější a mínň sci-fi.
The Economist: Placing their chips
