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"Hypoglycemia – a condition in which low blood glucose levels can cause you to feel dizzy, weak, and shaky – can catch you by surprise. It often occurs due to excess insulin, whether it's produced by your body or if you've injected too much of it. ...
To counteract this condition, a team of engineers ... has developed a coin-sized device that can be safely implanted in the body to automatically deliver a dose of glucagon when a sensor notices blood glucose levels dropping too low – and potentially save the user's life.
The compact device that's designed to be implanted under the skin only weighs 0.07 oz (2 g), and features a tiny reservoir for glucagon, a hormone that stimulates your liver to release glucose into your bloodstream. ...
glucagon in the reservoir is a specially developed powdered version, which remains stable for longer. The reservoir itself is made from a 3D-printed polymer, sealed with a nickel-titanium shape-memory alloy that curls from a flat slab into a U-shape when it's heated up to 104 °F (40 °C).
The tiny implant also includes an antenna that receives a signal from a remote trigger or a system that works with a glucose monitor. ...
"... we’re currently working on establishing what the optimal lifetime is. But then after that, it would need to be replaced." ..."
"A wireless, minimally invasive emergency rescue device is developed for the active burst-release of stable particulate forms of peptide and hormone drugs into subcutaneous sites in mice."
"... After implanting the device in diabetic mice, the researchers used it to trigger glucagon release as the animals’ blood sugar levels were dropping. Within less than 10 minutes of activating the drug release, blood sugar levels began to level off, allowing them to remain within the normal range and avert hypoglycemia.
The researchers also tested the device with a powdered version of epinephrine. They found that within 10 minutes of drug release, epinephrine levels in the bloodstream became elevated and heart rate increased.
In this study, the researchers kept the devices implanted for up to four weeks, but they now plan to see if they can extend that time up to at least a year. ..."
From the abstract:
"Rapidly administered emergency drug therapy represents life-saving treatment for a range of acute conditions including hypoglycaemia, anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest. Devices that automate emergency delivery, such as pumps and automated injectors, are limited by the low stability of liquid formulations.
In contrast, dry particulate formulations of these drugs are stable but are incompatible with drug pumps and require reconstitution before administration. Here we develop a miniaturized (<3 cm3), lightweight (<2 g), minimally invasive, fully wireless emergency rescue device for the storage and active burst-release of indefinitely stable particulate forms of peptide and hormone drugs into subcutaneous sites for direct reconstitution in interstitial biofluids and rapid (<5 min) therapeutic effect.
Importantly, the device delivers drug across fibrotic tissue, which commonly accumulates following in vivo implantation, thereby accelerating systemic delivery. Fully wireless delivery of dry particulate glucagon in vivo is demonstrated, providing emergency hypoglycaemic rescue in diabetic mice.
In addition, triggered delivery of epinephrine is demonstrated in vivo. This work provides a platform for the long-term in vivo closed-loop delivery of emergency rescue drugs."
Implantable device could save diabetes patients from dangerously low blood sugar (original news release) "The new implant carries a reservoir of glucagon that can be stored under the skin and deployed during an emergency — with no injections needed."
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