New, Smart, Biocompatible Insulin Patch Could Replace Needles For Diabetics

by Monica Joshi

There are currently about 29.1 million people in the United States living with Diabetes. That's 9.3% of the American population currently suffering from this illness that only has one cure: insulin. For those who suffer from diabetes, insulin injection can be sometimes a painful and often imprecise process of keeping their blood sugar levels under control. There's a new 'smart' insulin patch in the works that could do away with these painful injections and revolutionize the way that diabetics keep their blood sugar levels in check.

Created by researchers from the University of North Carolina and NC State, the patch is a thin square covered with more than 100 tiny needles. According to researchers, the patch works fast, is simple to use and is made from biocompatible materials. It has tiny, painless needles that are packed with insulin and glucose-sensing enzymes in microscopic storage units.

The patch is able to release these enzymes when blood sugar levels get too high.
In a mouse-model of type 1 diabetes, the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed promising results. Researchers hope to see similar success in subsequent clinical trials in humans.

Co-senior author Zhen Gu said in a statement that:

"The whole system can be personalized to account for a diabetic's weight and sensitivity to insulin, so we could make the smart patch even smarter."

The study found that the patch lowered blood glucose in mice for up to nine hours. As mice are less sensitive to insulin than humans, the researchers suggested the patch could, in fact, have a longer-lasting effect in diabetic patients. The patch emulates beta cells. These beta cells generate and store insulin in tiny sacks called vesicles. Beta cells play an important role in monitoring blood sugar levels and sending signals to release insulin into the bloodstream.

First author Jiching Yu said:

"We constructed artificial vesicles to perform these same functions by using two materials that could easily be found in nature.”

When blood sugar levels increased, enzymes converted the excess glucose molecules that crowded into the vesicles into a product called gluconic acid. This reaction requires the consumption of oxygen. As the environment becomes starved of oxygen, this makes some of the molecules become water-fearing. Ultimately, this causes the vesicles to fall apart, sending insulin into the bloodstream.

Co-senior author John Buse said that:

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

Around 387 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. These patients keep their blood sugar in check by monitoring their levels with regular finger pricks and repeated insulin shots. If the wrong amount of medication is injected, patients could suffer from severe complications. This patch could really change the way that insulin is given as well as prescribed to allow for a safe, secure blood sugar checks.