A semi -transparent and flexible patch stuck to the wrist monitors blood glucose levels in real time.The prototype is made of graphene and detects blood glucose from sweat.In addition, the device administer drugs in a controlled way through the skin to reduce sugar levels.
Today Nature Nanotechnology magazine publishes the first concept tests of this device, which has been tested in diabetic mice and two healthy humans.The new method could be a non -invasive alternative to the current click on the finger to know blood glucose levels.
The mechanism has been tested in healthy diabetic and human mice
"The most important thing about the new method is that it allows measuring glucose levels to real time," says Jordi Duran, researcher at the Metabolic Engineering Group and Diabetes therapy of the Biomèdic Recerca Institut (IRB Barcelona).
The advance would be a “very large” advantage, Duran points out, to control glycemia and avoid the associated problems of poorly controlled diabetes, such as cardiovascular diseases, limb amputations or blindness.
Until now the only non -invasive device, approved by the Food and Medicines Administration (FDA)Success, ”recalls Richard Guy, researcher at the University of Bath (United Kingdom), in a comment that accompanies the work.
The promise of graphene
Potential graphene applications earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. His attributes make him a very promising material: it is flexible, transparent, very thin and conducts electricity.However, until now its application in the detection of biological markers had been very limited.
The diabetes patch partially extracted from the skin.The elastomer substrate allows patch rolling on human skin
The diabetes patch partially extracted from the skin.The elastomer substrate allows patch rolling on human skin (Hui Won Yun, National University of Seoul)
Now a team of international scientists, led by the University of Seoul (South Korea), have synthesized graphene by chemical vapor deposition, one of the chemical processes to obtain the material.
Gold particles have added to the material, which combined with a double golden mesh, improved the electrochemical activity of the pH, humidity and temperature sensors that correct in real time the detection of blood glucose levels.
In addition, the patch contains a drug administration system that responds to the heat made of small needles that release metformin.Today this drug is the most used in the oral treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes is a public health concern.The World Health Organization considers it "a worldwide epidemic" associated with the increase in overweight, obesity and sedentary lifestyle.Type 2 diabetes represents 90% of world cases of this disease.
The authors of the research warn that before applying this technology in humans they have to expand the system of components responsible for supplying the drug.
