A new nanotechnology-based technique for regulating blood sugar in diabetics could give patients the ability to release insulin painlessly using a small ultrasound device, allowing them to go days between injections — rather than using needles to give themselves multiple insulin injections each day.
A patient who has type 1 or advanced type 2 diabetes needs additional insulin, a hormone that transports glucose — or blood sugar — from the bloodstream into the body’s cells.
These diabetes patients must inject insulin as needed to ensure their blood sugar levels are in the “normal” range. However, these injections can be painful.
The new technique — developed by Dr. Zhen Gu, an assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill, and other researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — may offer a solution.