Implantable Device Could Save Diabetes Patients from Dangerously Low Blood Sugar

For individuals with Type 1 diabetes, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) presents a life-threatening threat, particularly when glucose levels drop too low, which can result in seizures, coma, or even death. While glucagon injections are commonly used to reverse these dangerous drops in blood sugar, many patients—especially children or those who are asleep—may not realize their blood sugar is falling to dangerous levels. Standard procedures are not always effective in these situations, which often leads to delays in treatment and poses a substantial risk to patient health. Now, researchers have developed an implantable device that can automatically release glucagon when blood sugar levels become dangerously low, offering a potential solution for better management of hypoglycemia.

This implantable device, developed by engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA), releases glucagon automatically when blood sugar levels fall too low. The device consists of a small drug reservoir implanted under the skin, capable of delivering glucagon or epinephrine in response to signals from a glucose monitor or the patient's own action. This innovative system works by using a shape-memory alloy, which changes its shape when heated, to release the drug. The reservoir contains a powdered form of glucagon, which remains stable and ready for use, and the system can be triggered either by a manual signal or automatically when blood sugar drops below a certain threshold.

The device was tested in diabetic mice, and the results, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, showed that it could effectively prevent hypoglycemia by releasing glucagon within 10 minutes of activation, stabilizing blood sugar levels. The system’s ability to function without requiring pre-processing or complex steps makes it a potential game-changer for diabetes care. The researchers are currently working on extending the device’s lifespan for long-term use in humans. Future studies will focus on refining the device for human clinical trials and enhancing its usability in real-world conditions.

“This is a small, emergency-event device that can be placed under the skin, where it is ready to act if the patient’s blood sugar drops too low,” said MIT’s Daniel Anderson, senior author of the study. “Our goal was to build a device that is always ready to protect patients from low blood sugar. We think this can also help relieve the fear of hypoglycemia that many patients, and their parents, suffer from.”

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