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Author Spotlight: Innovative Microneedle-Based Strategies for Enhanced Exosome Delivery and Stability
Published on: July 12, 2024
Glucose-Responsive Microneedle Patches for Diabetes Treatment
Guojun Chen1,2, Jicheng Yu1,2, Zhen Gu1,2,3
11 Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.
Abstract:
Antidiabetic therapeutics, including insulin as well as glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and its analogs, are essential for people with diabetes to regulate their blood glucose levels. Nevertheless, conventional treatments based on hypodermic administration is commonly associated with poor blood glucose control, a lack of patient compliance, and a high risk of hypoglycemia. Closed-loop drug delivery strategies, also known as self-regulated administration, which can intelligently govern the drug release kinetics in response to the fluctuation in blood glucose levels, show tremendous promise in diabetes therapy. In the meantime, the advances in the development and use of microneedle (MN)-array patches for transdermal drug delivery offer an alternative method to conventional hypodermic administration. Hence, glucose-responsive MN-array patches for the treatment of diabetes have attracted increasing attentions in recent years. This review summarizes recent advances in glucose-responsive MN-array patch systems. Their opportunities and challenges for clinical translation are also discussed.
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