Revolutionary Smartphone-Controlled Patch Technology to Transform Injection-Based Treatments

Smartphone-controlled patches will save people from injections

New technology will help in the treatment of various diseases.

A new smartphone-controlled wearable patch could be a game-changer for people who need frequent injections or take multiple medications throughout the day. This device, developed at the University of North Carolina by professors Wubin Bai and Huang Song, allows painless administration of various drugs through the skin using a signal from a smartphone.

The patch, called the Spatiotemporal On-Demand Patch (SOP), is a modification of an existing type of device – microneedle patches. These patches are small polymer sheets with an array of small, sharp, drug-loaded spikes (microneedles) on the underside. When the patch is applied to the body, the needles painlessly penetrate the top layer of skin, then dissolve and release the medicine.

The SOP is distinguished by having an electrical circuit on its top surface, its needles can be individually loaded with various medications, and all needles are coated with a thin layer of gold. When initially applied to the skin, this coating prevents the needles from dissolving. However, when activated by a wireless signal from a smartphone (or computer), the SOP heats one or more microneedles, causing the gold on them to disintegrate. The needle then makes direct contact with the skin, dissolves and releases its contents within 30 seconds. As with other microneedling patches, the medication is first released into the interstitial fluid between skin cells and then transferred into the bloodstream.

In laboratory tests, SOP has already been successfully used to administer multiple doses of melatonin to mice. It is expected that the technology could be used to treat chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, allowing different drugs to be administered throughout the day on a predetermined schedule.

“The beauty of this device is that it can contain tens, if not hundreds, of concentrated drugs and can be programmed to release them sequentially automatically,” Song said.

An article with the results of the study was published in the journal Nature Communications .

2024-01-21 14:23:05

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