Insulin Patches Could Make Life Easier for Millions of Latinos

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The University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University have developed and currently are testing an insulin patch that could soon replace the painful insulin injections, Univision reports.

More than 16 percent of Latinos in the U.S. suffers from diabetes and could benefit from insulin patches.

“Basically we developed this kind of so-called smart insulin patch, which can sense the blood sugar level and release insulin at the right time only once the blood sugar goes up. And the insulin can be quickly released from the patch. And meanwhile once the blood sugar level goes to a normal range, less insulin is released or is just inhibited. Basically this kind of smart insulin patch is not only smart, it is also painless,” Dr.Zhen Gu, lead researcher of the project told Reuters.

Gu and his team of researchers were able to “fit more than 100 microneedles onto the patch, which is less than the size of a dime.”

“Basically we designed this kind of material – a polymer-based material, which can be sensitive to blood sugar level changes,” Gu says. “We are trying to mimic the functioning of the beta cells or the vesicles inside the beta cells and they can disrupt once the blood sugar goes up and release insulin quickly.”

The patch which will make patients more independent and decrease human error, currently works for only nine hours, but Gu and his team hope that in the future it could work for several days.