Instead of a syringe and a pump
A new "smart" patch for the treatment of diabetes has been successfully tested in a pre-clinic
Bioengineers from the University of California at Los Angeles, the UNC Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) have developed an intelligent patch for delivering insulin, which in the future will be able to control glucose levels in people with diabetes and provide the necessary dosage of insulin, the press service of the UNC Medical School reports. The scientists described their development in detail in an article published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering (Yu et al., Glucose-responsive insulin patch for the regulation of blood glucose in mice and minipigs).
The new "smart" patch is small in size, the size of a coin. It saves the patient from having to constantly check the blood sugar level and then inject insulin if and when necessary. The device simulates the regulating function of the pancreas – it controls the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood.
The patch itself contains doses of insulin preloaded into very small microneedles, less than one millimeter long, which quickly deliver the medicine when the blood sugar level reaches a certain threshold. As soon as this level returns to normal, the insulin supply in the patch slows down. According to the researchers, the advantage of the patch is that it can help prevent an overdose of insulin, which can lead to hypoglycemia, seizures, coma or even death.
Insulin is a hormone that is naturally produced in the pancreas, helps the body regulate the level of glucose that comes from food, and provides the body with energy. Insulin is a molecular key that helps move glucose from the bloodstream into cells for energy and storage. Type I diabetes occurs when the human body does not produce insulin. Type II diabetes occurs when the body does not use efficiently produced insulin. In any case, the usual dosage of insulin is prescribed to combat this disease. This hormone can be injected with a needle and syringe or delivered using an insulin pump, which is a portable device the size of a mobile phone attached to the body through a tube with a needle at the end.
A "smart" patch can become a more convenient alternative to these devices. The microneedles in the patch are made of a glucose-sensitive polymer, which contains insulin inside. After application to the skin, the microneedles penetrate under the skin and can assess the blood sugar level. If glucose levels rise, the polymer is activated to release insulin. Each microneedle is smaller than a regular needle used to draw blood and does not penetrate as deep under the skin, so the patch is less painful than a needle prick. Each microneedle penetrates half a millimeter below the skin level, which is enough to deliver insulin to the body.
Preclinical tests of the new device conducted on mice and pigs have shown the effectiveness of the insulin patch. In experiments, one small patch successfully controlled glucose levels in dwarf pigs with type I diabetes for about 20 hours. The pigs weighed an average of about 25 kilograms.
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