This Vibrating Capsule Could Assist In The Ways We Treat Obesity

Olympic athletes and bodybuilders at the top of their game claim that conquering the mind is the key to peak human excellence. There might be some truth to that, at least when it comes to the fight against obesity. Enterprising MIT engineers are working on a deceptively simple way to trick your brain into effective portion control — all without the risks associated with hormone-altering drugs or invasive surgical procedures designed to reduce food intake.

As the name suggests, the Vibrating Ingestible BioElectronic Stimulator (VIBES) pill works by stimulating the stretch receptors in the stomach wall from the inside. It achieves this by inducing specific vibration patterns produced by a miniature motor. This mechanical stimulation sends a signal via the vagus cranial nerve, which prematurely forces the brain to transition to the fed state. The idea is to induce a sequence of endocrinal activity promoting the commencement of digestion and the feeling of fullness.

Most notably, the VIBES capsule dupes the brain into releasing a concoction of insulin and hormones, such as C-peptide, peptide YY, and GLP-1. The latter is also the active ingredient in GLP-1 injections, an increasingly expensive means to achieve one of the most popular non-invasive weight loss measures.

The breakthrough obesity control pill was revealed in a study published in the Science Advances journal, where a team of researchers led by Dr. Shriya Srinivasan, assistant professor of bioengineering at Harvard University, evaluated its efficacy on 10 Yorkshire pigs across 108 meals. The researchers claim to have recorded the same hormonal release patterns associated with satiety once the animals ingested the VIBES pill 20 minutes before meals.

The study also notes that the pigs who swallowed the pill exhibited a 40% reduction in food consumption, followed by a slower weight gain rate than the control group. While the efficacy claims are promising, determining the procedure's safety on animal test subjects was the study's primary goal ahead of the impending human trials.

Sized approximately like a multivitamin capsule, a single dose of VIBES passed through the gastrointestinal tract of the pigs within an average of 4.3 days. The pill is powered by a silver oxide battery activated only when the gastric juices dissolve the non-conductive gelatinous membrane separating the electrodes — much like the removable plastic tab found in a brand-new TV remote designed to prevent the batteries from going flat prematurely in storage.

Just like there's no switch to power the vibration motor on, the pill also stops vibrating after about 30 minutes. The research team is currently working on optimizing the operating scale, delivery, and cost-effectiveness for human trials in the future.

The VIBES pill represents a significant breakthrough, considering its non-invasive and drugless nature. Even as the research team led by Dr. Srinivasan works toward making the pill more cost-effective and consumer-friendly, it already has the potential to become an affordable weight loss option for the drugless stimulation of the GLP-1 hormone. Unlike the injectable versions of GLP-1 weight loss therapies, whose active ingredients are subject to pharmaceutical patents that drive up treatment costs significantly, the VIBES pill has the potential to achieve similar efficacy levels without breaking the bank.

The non-invasive nature of the promising new anti-obesity solution makes it inherently safer than surgical procedures (on paper at least), such as gastric bypass, which isn't typically covered by most U.S. health insurance policies without the existence of comorbidities like diabetes and degenerative arthritis. But more importantly, the high cost of prevalent weight loss measures is significant considering the direct link between poverty and obesity in developed countries like the U.S. and the U.K.

If Dr. Srinivasan and her team of researchers make the VIBES pill commercially viable and cheaper to deploy, it could become a viable weight loss option for the demographic that needs it the most.