Gas Sensing Capsule Could Uphold Gut Health

Developed by researchers at RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) and Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), the capsule features bio-compatible cladding, a gas permeable membrane, gas sensor, electronic circuits such as sensor drivers, micro-controllers, wireless high-frequency transmission electronics, and a battery. Animal trials have demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of the capsules, which transmit data as they move through the gut to a handheld device such as a mobile phone, before passing out of the body.

Currently, doctors rely on indirect measurements, such as breath and fecal analysis, to gauge which gases are in the intestine. But an ingested sensor could directly analyze the gases released when bacteria ferment undigested food in the gut, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen, methane, oxygen, and hydrogen sulphide. Supporting apps could have libraries that compare fractional gas concentrations in various states, so that the relative changes would indicate certain diseases or intestinal conditions. The study describing the capsule was published on March 12, 2015, in Trends in Biotechnology.

“A gas-sensing pill could give you a real-time glimpse into what’s going on in your gut; as the gases permeate the capsule, the sensors produce signals and digitize the data, then send it to an app,” said senior author Prof. Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh, PHD, of RMIT. “If some organic compound like butyrate goes up, that means something is happening to the wall of the stomach, and the thing that is happening is generally not good, has to be detected, and should be addressed very quickly.”

“We know gut microorganisms produce gases as a by-product of their metabolism, but we understand very little about how that affects our health,” added Prof. Kalantar-Zadeh. “Being able to accurately measure intestinal gases could accelerate our knowledge about how specific gut microorganisms contribute to gastrointestinal disorders and food intake efficiency, enabling the development of new diagnostic techniques and treatments.”

Intestinal gases have been linked to colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and could potentially be used as key biomarkers for assessing overall health.

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RMIT University
Monash University