Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Sci Adv. 2023 Dec 22;9(51):eadj3003. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adj3003.
Effective therapies for obesity require invasive surgical and endoscopic interventions or high patient adherence, making it challenging for patients with obesity to effectively manage their disease. Gastric mechanoreceptors sense distension of the stomach and perform volume-dependent vagal signaling to initiate the gastric phase and influence satiety. In this study, we developed a new luminal stimulation modality to specifically activate these gastric stretch receptors to elicit a vagal afferent response commensurate with mechanical distension. We designed the Vibrating Ingestible BioElectronic Stimulator (VIBES) pill, an ingestible device that performs luminal vibratory stimulation to activate mechanoreceptors and stroke mucosal receptors, which induces serotonin release and yields a hormonal metabolic response commensurate with a fed state. We evaluated VIBES across 108 meals in swine which consistently led to diminished food intake (~40%, < 0.0001) and minimized the weight gain rate ( < 0.05) as compared to untreated controls. Application of mechanoreceptor biology could transform our capacity to help patients suffering from nutritional disorders.
有效的肥胖症治疗方法需要侵入性的手术和内镜干预，或者需要患者高度配合，这使得肥胖症患者难以有效地控制他们的疾病。胃机械感受器感知胃的扩张，并进行容积依赖性迷走神经信号传递，以启动胃期并影响饱腹感。在这项研究中，我们开发了一种新的管腔刺激方式，专门激活这些胃伸展感受器，以引起与机械扩张相称的迷走传入反应。我们设计了振动式可摄入生物电子刺激器（VIBES）药丸，这是一种可进行管腔振动刺激的可摄入装置，可激活机械感受器和刺激黏膜感受器，从而诱导血清素释放，并产生与进食状态相称的激素代谢反应。我们在猪的 108 餐中评估了 VIBES，结果一致表明它能减少食物摄入量（约 40%，<0.0001），并将体重增加率降至最低（<0.05），与未治疗的对照组相比。机械感受器生物学的应用可能会改变我们帮助患有营养障碍的患者的能力。
