LETI: A patch to deliver the body's diabetes drugs

2023: Product Announcement

At the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University "LETI" developed a smart patch for the delivery of drugs for diabetes to the body. A miniature electronic device introduces drugs using special microneedles without injuring the skin, the press service of the university said in June 2023.

The developed system includes a reservoir designed for storing a drug and a micro-pump, which ensures the supply of the drug to the body through microneedles. Depending on the purpose, the system can be equipped with sensors that track body parameters indicating malaise. All functional elements are placed on flexible polymer substrate.

Smart patch to deliver diabetes drugs to the body

To produce microneedles of sufficient miniature size, LETI scientists have developed an original installation. It allows you to obtain by plastic injection molding hollow plastic needles, similar to those used in cosmetology for mesotherapy of the face, only significantly shorter length (about 0.5-2 mm).

Thanks to the compactness and use of microneedles, our proposed system is more comfortable for constant wearing, it does not destroy the skin, unlike, for example, insulin pumps with one large needle, and at the same time allows you to introduce the required volume of drugs. In the future, such systems can be massively used as individual devices for diabetes therapy, "said Ivan Khmelnytsky, associate professor of the Department of Micro- and Nanoelectronics (MNE) of St. Petersburg State Technical University" LETI. "

LETI emphasized that one of the promising areas for the development of medicine in the field of diagnosis and treatment of diabetes is smart technologies, in particular, which can be built into clothes or everyday accessories and collect data on the state of a person and, if necessary, deliver drugs to the body and promptly signal malaise.^[1]

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