The new birth control shot is transformed into a long-lasting implant-no clinic without clinic is required

The contraceptive implant is a thin and flexible rod that has been sitting under the skin and releases contraceptive drugs in the body for years. While it is one of the the most effective forms of contraceptives And it avoids the inconvenience of having to take a pill every day, the implant requires a slight operation that can limit accessibility. To facilitate their lives, researchers create self -assembling contraceptive implantation components that women can self -aware of with one injection.

A team of researchers has developed the technology for self -impact contraceptive photos that work similar to contraceptive implants. As described in a a exploration Posted on Monday in Nature Chemical Engineering, the photos would lead to a highly effective and long-term method of contraceptive, more accessible to women who do not have easy access to medical infrastructure. In addition, the design can be used to administer other long -term medicines, such as HIV.

The new approach provides contraceptive hormonal drugs Levonorgestrel through what researchers call “self -assembling long -acting injection microcrystals” (SLIM). Once injected into the body, the tiny crystals are assembled into an implant or depot medicine, which releases Levonorgestrel while eroded for months or years.

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“The Overching Goal is to Give Women Access To A Lot of Different Formats for ContracePtion That Are Easy to Administere, Compati Being used in the Developing World, and Have a Range of Vivian Feig, A Mechanical Engineer at Stanford University and Co-Author on the Study, Said in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) statementS

Traditionally Birth control frames They already exist and are more accessible than the contraceptive implant, as patients can shoot without having to visit a hospital or medical clinic. However, they are a little less effective than the implant and are not durable, so they should be applied every three months.

The new design of researchers’ contraceptives joins the accessibility of self -administered photos with the long -term efficiency of the implant. However, the challenge of self -applying SLIM -like technologies is the large (and therefore painful) needle size required to inject medicines. In contrast, the team formula – tiny crystals and solvent (in this case a liquid compound called benzil benzoate) – heal for the use of much smaller needles.

“The size of the needle and the viscosity of the fluid is crucial for the trade translation of injectable substances,” says Giovanni Traverso, senior study author and gastroenterologist at MIT and Brigham and Women Hospital, in a mass common brigham statementS “Our engineering challenge was to find a way to maximize the comfort of patients by using smaller needles that cause smaller bruising or bleeding and make the viscosity low enough for easy use with the syringe by hand.”

In addition, Traverso and his colleagues can change the mixture to “modulate the release rate of the drug, prolonging their duration while maintaining injectionability,” explained Sanghyun graduate in MIT’s statement. “This demonstrates the setting of our system, which can be designed to meet a wider spectrum of contraceptive needs, as well as adapted dosage regimens for other therapeutic applications.”

Although SLIM has not yet undergone clinical trials, the development of technology in preclinical models makes the way for more comfortable and effective future long-term drugs.