‘A smart insulin patch to control diabetes’

Scientists have created a synthetic painless patch filled with natural insulin-producing cells that can control blood sugar levels on demand.

For decades, researchers have tried to duplicate the function of beta cells, the tiny insulin-producing entities that do not work properly in patients with diabetes. Insulin injections provide painful and often imperfect substitutes.

Transplants of normal beta cells carry the risk of rejection or side effects from immunosuppressive therapies, researchers said. Now, scientists from University of North Carolina in the US have devised another option, a synthetic patch filled with natural beta cells that can secrete doses of insulin to control blood sugar levels on demand with no risk of inducing hypoglycemia.

The proof-of-concept builds on an innovative technology, the “smart insulin patch.” Both patches are thin polymeric squares about the size of a quarter and covered in tiny needles, like a miniature bed of nails.

However, whereas the former approach filled these needles with manmade bubbles of insulin, this new “smart cell patch” integrates the needles with live beta cells. Tests of this painless patch in small animal models of Type-1 diabetes demonstrated that it could quickly respond to skyrocketing blood sugar levels.