Smart Insulin Patch Could Make Injections Obsolete

A new “smart insulin patch” could significantly improve blood sugar control and quality of life in patients with diabetes, according to a recent study.

The “glucose-responsive closed-loop insulin delivery system”, a square patch the size of a penny that can be placed anywhere on the body, works by mimicking the function of pancreatic cells. It senses when the body’s blood sugar levels are low and dispenses a precise amount of insulin from its reservoir through more than 100 microneedles covering its surface.
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The efficacy of the patch was treated in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes, in which 1 group of mice with chemically-induced diabetes was given a standard insulin injection, while another group was given the patch.

Blood glucose levels in the mice given a standard injection normalized, but quickly rose to hyperglycemic levels, while levels in mice given the patch normalized within 30 minutes and remained normal for hours afterward.

Because mice are less sensitive to insulin than humans, these results lead researchers to believe that the patch could be effective in human patients for even longer. Eventually, the researchers hope to develop a patch that would only need to be changed once every few days.

"The hard part of diabetes care is not the insulin shots, or the blood sugar checks, or the diet but the fact that you have to do them all several times a day every day for the rest of your life," the researchers concluded.

“If we can get these patches to work in people, it will be a game changer.”

—Michael Potts

Reference

UNC Healthcare. Smart insulin patch could replace painful injections for diabetes [press release]. June 2015. http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2015/june/smart-insulin-patch-could-replace-painful-injections-for-diabetes. Accessed June 23, 2015.