Reseachers Create A Wearable Patch For Control Of Type 2 Diabetes

A Public Health Foundation of India worker conducts a blood glucose test for a patient while during a free door-to-door screening program funded by Eli Lilly & Co. at a home in the farming village of Thana Kalan, Haryana, India, on Thursday, July 13, 2017. Global pharmaceutical companies, from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly to Switzerland’s Novartis AG, are heading into smaller cities and rural areas to learn about the health-care needs of about 70 percent of the population. Photographer: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg

In the 2017 Diabetes Statistics report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are 30.3 million people with diabetes in the US which is 9.4% of the US population. It's also the seventh leading cause of death in the US.

Researchers at the NIH's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) are working on an alternative therapeutic approach to regulating blood sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes using a painless wearable skin patch that can last up to several days.

The proof-of-concept study was performed with mice to test the ability of the patch to respond to blood chemistry and manage glucose automatically.

still produce some insulin. Leapman also stated that a weekly microneedle patch application would be less complicated and painful than the traditional methods of frequent blood testing.

To make the experimental patch scientists used alginate, a sticky natural substance that's extracted from brown algae mixed with a formula of biochemical particles that stimulates a body's insulin production when it's needed and shuts off when normal blood sugar concentration is obtained. This was all poured into a microneedle form to create the patch. The scientists used alginate because it's a pliable material and has to be able to poke the dermis, rather than break the skin. The dissolvable microneedles make the patch a responsive delivery system for the therapeutics to be absorbed by the body over a period of time, rather than all at once.