Disposable diabetes patch measures sweat glucose and delivers metformin

Wearable patch successfully delivered metformin under the skin of mice and reduced blood glucose levels, offering a system researchers say could be used in clinical settings as a treatment for diabetes.

Wearable sweat monitoring patch which can be used to treat diabetes
Researchers from South Korea have developed a potential alternative approach in the form of a wearable and disposable patch that non-invasively measures sweat glucose and delivers medication via microneedles

Courtesy of Hyunjae Lee and Changyeong Song

The ongoing need to check insulin levels via blood collection and administer insulin injections is a barrier to effective diabetes management.

Therefore, researchers from South Korea have developed a potential alternative approach in the form of a wearable and disposable patch that non-invasively measures sweat glucose and delivers medication via microneedles.

In a paper published in Science Advances
[1]
 (8 March 2017), the researchers discovered that sweat glucose levels recorded by the patch correlated well with blood glucose measured with a commercial glucose meter. They also tested the microneedle drug delivery mechanism in mice, where metformin was successfully delivered under the skin and resulted in dose-dependent blood-glucose reduction.

The researchers say that with further research and development, the system could be pursued in clinical settings as a painless, stress-free way to treat diabetes.

References

[1] Lee H, Song C, Hong YS et al. Wearable/disposable sweat-based glucose monitoring device with multistage transdermal drug delivery module. Sci Adv 2017;3:e1601314. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1601314

Last updated
Citation
Clinical Pharmacist, CP, May 2017, Vol 9, No 5;9(5):DOI:10.1211/PJ.2017.20202547

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