Treatment of a disease of the gastrointestinal tract with IL-10 or an IL-10 agonist

A method of treating ulcerative colitis in a subject, the method comprising:

• orally administering to the subject an ingestible device comprising:
• an ingestible housing comprising a reservoir, the reservoir containing a pharmaceutical formulation comprising a therapeutically effective amount of an IL-10 receptor agonist selected from the group consisting of recombinant human IL-10, pegylated IL-10, viral IL-10, IL-10 fusion protein, IL-10 antibody or antigen-binding fragment thereof, and IL-10 peptide mimetic;
• a release mechanism having a closed state wherein the pharmaceutical formulation is retained in the reservoir and an open state which allows for the release of the pharmaceutical formulation from the reservoir to the exterior of the ingestible device;
• an actuator which controls the transition of the release mechanism from the closed state to the open state;
• a light source configured to produce light that interacts with a gastrointestinal (GI) tract of the subject to provide light reflectance;
• a detector configured to detect the light reflectance to detect the GI tract;
• and a processor coupled to the detector and to the actuator, wherein the processor triggers the actuator to cause the release mechanism to transition from the closed state to the open state when the ingestible device is located in the cecum based on the detected light reflectance, wherein the cecum has been predetermined to be proximal to one or more disease sites, thereby releasing the pharmaceutical formulation comprising the IL-10 receptor agonist from the ingestible device when the ingestible device is located in the cecum of the subject.