MIT researchers have developed an implantable gadget that may mechanically launch glucagon when blood sugar ranges drop dangerously low in Sort 1 diabetes sufferers. The quarter-sized gadget accommodates a 3D-printed polymer reservoir that shops powdered glucagon and will be triggered wirelessly to ship emergency doses. The research, led by Siddharth Krishnan and revealed in Nature Biomedical Engineering, demonstrates a possible resolution for hypoglycemia episodes that happen throughout sleep or in sufferers who can’t acknowledge signs.
The gadget makes use of a nickel-titanium shape-memory alloy that adjustments from a flat slab to a U-shape when heated to 40 levels Celsius. An antenna receives radiofrequency indicators that set off a small electrical present to warmth the alloy, inflicting it to bend and launch the drug contents. “This can be a small, emergency-event gadget that may be positioned underneath the pores and skin, the place it is able to act if the affected person’s blood sugar drops too low,” says Daniel Anderson, a professor in MIT’s Division of Chemical Engineering and senior creator of the research.
In exams with diabetic mice, the gadget efficiently reversed dropping blood sugar ranges inside 10 minutes of activation. The researchers additionally demonstrated the gadget’s means to ship epinephrine for treating coronary heart assaults and extreme allergic reactions. Blood sugar ranges remained inside regular ranges and prevented hypoglycemia throughout the research interval.
The present model can retailer both one or 4 doses of glucagon and remained practical for as much as 4 weeks in testing. The researchers plan to increase the gadget’s lifespan to not less than one yr and hope to start medical trials inside three years. The gadget continued to work successfully even after fibrotic tissue fashioned across the implant, addressing a typical problem with implanted medical gadgets.
The analysis was funded by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Belief, the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, a JDRF postdoctoral fellowship, and the Nationwide Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. The gadget might doubtlessly interface with current steady glucose monitoring techniques to offer automated emergency response for diabetes sufferers.
Supply: information.mit.edu
