No one likes injections, but unfortunately, some medications can only be taken by injection. That may be changing, though, thanks to the invention of a suction cup that fits into your mouth. The problem with injectable-only drugs is that they are made up of relatively large molecules. If the drug is taken orally, these molecules are broken down by the digestive system, and they are too large to pass through the intestinal wall and enter the bloodstream.
Likewise, they cannot penetrate the mucous membrane that makes up the lining of the cheeks (called the buccal mucosa) and the base of the tongue. That's where the octopus-inspired suction cup comes in.
This suction cup was created by scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZurich). It is 10 mm wide and 6 mm thick. After loading the relevant drugs, you only need to press it in place with two fingers to adsorb the drugs to the buccal mucosa. The vacuum created within the suction cup stretches the underlying mucosa, making it more transparent.
To further increase this permeability, a naturally derived chemical is added to the drug that temporarily loosens the cellular network of the mucosa. Therefore, the drug can enter the bloodstream through the buccal mucosa within a few minutes.
In tests on dogs (who were not harmed), the suction cups successfully delivered the drug into the bloodstream. The empty suction cups were also tested on 40 human subjects, most of whom said they preferred this method of delivery to injections. The suction cup adhered to the volunteer's buccal mucosa for half an hour without causing any discomfort.
Nevena Paunović of ETH co-led the research with David Klein Cerrejon. The next step is to manufacture the suction cups in a way that complies with current pharmaceutical regulations.
The sucker is currently being commercialized through spin-off company TransireBio. A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.