

MIT Builds A Needle-Free Drug Injector - JumpCrisscross
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/05/25/153697885/mit-builds-a-needle-free-drug-injector

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huhtenberg
When I was a kid, they used the _exact same_ injectors to vaccinate us in
school. That was in mid-80s. This thing was indeed virtually painless and left
a funny air bubble under the skin that disappeared in an hour. As far as I was
concerned it was _awesome_. But apparently it had some problems (infections?)
and the program ended as quickly as it started.

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schiffern
>left a funny air bubble

>apparently it had some problems

Air emboli?

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mbrameld
An air embolism would only be a problem if it was in a blood vessel. Those
injectors were intramuscular and the air just diffused back out through the
tissue.

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loxs
I can't think of a case where this can be a problem by accident. Back when I
was in the medical school (Bulgaria, Eastern Europe) we sometimes used air
embolism to kill off experimental animals. I remember that the quantity of air
needed is substantial. Something like 20-50 cubic centimeters needed to kill a
rabbit reliably by venous (right heart) embolism. I imagine the quantity
needed to kill a human is quite a lot bigger. Of course, it's not the same if
you insert air in the carotid artery. I guess that quite smaller quantity
there will kill a human. I speculate something in the range below 1 cm3.

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dexen
The most interesting part is described near the end: they are able to inject
powder. The device vibrates the powder to the point it behaves as liquid and
thus can be injected easily. Cool :D

Somebody correct me please; I imagine they care about powder because drugs (or
vaccines?) in powdered form could sustain longer storage than liquid form.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M09LyLqb5qw#t=177s>

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raverbashing
That is indeed a very likely explanation

Remember antibiotics that come as a powder and that have to be mixed at home,
and have a very short life after being mixed? While the pill version has a
standart shelf life?

I assume hence vaccines that have to be kept in fridges now would come as a
powder.

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moocow01
It would be great if they could get this down to almost no cost so its
accessible to and preferred by hard drug users. While drug abuse and addiction
is an extremely sad human habit, it is magnified by the side effects of needle
sharing and the diseases that are typically accidentally passed on by users.

On top of it if this was paired with cheap electronic regulation mechanisms it
could at least attempt to discourage a user from overdosing. I know its
somewhat of an odd proposal but I think there could be potential here to help
a population thats already down and out from succumbing as frequently to death
and disease as they do today.

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scoot
Why discourage the Darwin effect?

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rsheridan6
Even if you don't care about the health of IV drug users at all, they spread
disease to other people, and when they show up at the hospital it's everyone
else who ends up paying the bill, since they usually have no money.

~~~
asksol
But note that this device is for IM (intra-muscular) not IV. While it
certainly would be great for harm control, most hard drug users probably
wouldn't bother.

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anjc
I'd love for this to exist, being a hater of needles. But it seems a bit odd
to say:

"""The new injector has yet to be tested on people, but has been used on
animals, like sheep, without apparent discomfort. "The sheep did not seem to
even be aware that they were being injected," Hunter says"""

Are sheep not herd animals that almost never show discomfort or pain?
Something to do with not wanting to get picked off by predators? I've never
seen a sheep act hurt. I've even seen one get its back broken by a horse and
it just lay there like it was fine.

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olliesaunders
I sort of hope you’re right because the idea of a technology that could inject
things into people without them even knowing freaks me out a little bit.

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astrofinch
One solution to this problem would be to regulate the injectors so that they
had to put a mild, distinctive kind of pressure on your skin as they injected
into it.

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1as
Slightly off-topic, but isn't it interesting how often news like this is
broken with MIT as the subject of the headline: "MIT builds…", "MIT
discovers…", etc?

In general, reports originating from universities tend to be billed as
"Scientists discover…, "A report from Harvard suggests…", and the like.

Its indicative of, and certainly amplifies, the MIT brand.

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Archio
Exactly, I've noticed this time and time again.

> MIT discovers ... > MIT students make brilliant startup ... > MIT professors
> build ...

Meanwhile, let's say something originated from RPI. It would say,

> Scientists discovered a new vaccine that ...

I think it helps the pull- MIT is a brand name, so people will click the link.

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jakejake
I experienced one of the older versions of this injector at a free
vaccinations offered by my college. I'd say it hurt more than the needle, but
it was faster. They were also vaccinating a huge line of thousands of students
fairly quickly.

After the injection was done it looked like there was a tiny worm sticking out
of my arm (where the vaccine was kinda leaking out). Weird!

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superasn
Long time back I saw someone demonstrate an needle free injection using
osmosis (or reverse osmosis) on Discovery channel. It was pretty amazing and
this article reminded me of that. Unfortunately I can't really find anything
like that on Google right now. Can osmosis be used to inject drugs or is my
memory completely incorrect?

~~~
eric_bullington
You may be thinking of DMSO: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_sulfoxide>

It's a gel that easily penetrates the skin and can serve as a drug delivery
system. The KGB was said to use it to administer poison to assassination
victims. Its history has been plagued by controversy, which has slowed down
research on its many potential medical uses.

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jaems33
Can this be tailored for intravenous use? The tricky thing is calculating the
depth of the vein and it's thickness.

~~~
Alex3917
Drop one of these off at Insite and they'll figure it out in an hour.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insite>

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coderdude
It would be insanely cool if this becomes available one day for human use. I
hate getting shots with a passion. Heck, something like this might actually
prevent the spreading of diseases from needle sharing. I don't know how likely
it is that junkies will be able to afford one of these units but I'd imagine
that one day the cost would go down enough for regular people to buy one. (In
the beginning they will probably cost 10x what they're actually worth.)

~~~
hahainternet
This sort of device has actually been in use for a number of decades. There
are associated downsides like biological transfer and the infiltration of skin
cells. I'm afraid you'll have to suck it up for a while yet.

edit: A citation: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_injector>

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Fice
Inject drugs into people without making them notice? This makes a dangerous
weapon.

~~~
uptown
Since you can already easily achieve this through the use of food or drink as
the delivery mechanism, I don't see how this changes things much.

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bendauphinee
With food or drink you have to at least have some access to it. With an
injector, you could hit someone on the street just by walking by/near them. I
make my own food, but I walk by hundreds of people every day.

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amwelles
Reminds me of the umbrella murder of Georgi Markov[1].

[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Markov#Murder>

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velodrome
Wow, pretty amazing. It's a lot like a Star Trek "hypospray."

Anyway, I can imagine a lot less kids crying when getting their inoculation.
Seeing a huge needle (to a child) is quite scary and this device does not look
scary at all. In fact, it looks a lot like a toy.

I wonder how they can reuse the device between patients (probe ejection)?

In reality, I fear this tool will never see the marketplace due to the medical
industry stranglehold.

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bdfh42
Nope - they improved existing technology - such things were in use more than
30 years ago.

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Adirael
"Nope"? The title says "builds" not "invents". The body of the article reads:
"Jet injection technology has been around for quite a while. It's been used in
mechanical devices for more than a century".

So yes, they are improving an existing technology, the article says so and
they point which improvements they made.

EDIT: Grammar, wording.

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dhughes
Everything old is new again, at an industrial park near me a company back in
the late 1970s early 1980s developed a similar device.

    
    
      It used air pressure or some way of forcing medicine through the skin without needles it's called the Preci-Jet.

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swalsh
e-ink was invented during the 70's too! Sometimes inventions are made before
their time.

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dhughes
Sure, I remember reading about purple stuff found in a swamp being studied and
a few years later OLED is in my hand as the screen on my phone.

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ilija139
Star Trek here we come!

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libria
As long as it doesn't look like a "real" hypospray, you can avoid the CBS
legal team: <http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/wiki/Tricorder>

