Microneedle skin patch tagged posts

ETH researchers have developed a new gene switch that can be activated using a commercially available nitroglycerine patch applied to the skin. One day, researchers want to use switches of this kind to trigger cell therapies for various metabolic diseases.

The body regulates its metabolism precisely and continuously, with specialized cells in the pancreas constantly monitoring the amount of sugar in the blood, for example. When this blood sugar level increases after a meal, the body sets a signal cascade in motion in order to bring it back down.

In people suffering from diabetes, this regulatory mechanism no longer works exactly as it should...

Microneedle patch. Credit: Zhen Gu, UNC and NC State

Microneedle skin patch that delivers fat-shrinking drug locally could be used to treat obesity and diabetes. Researchers have devised a medicated skin patch that can turn energy-storing white fat into energy-burning brown fat locally while raising the body’s overall metabolism. White fat stores excess energy in large triglyceride droplets. Brown fat has smaller droplets and a high number of mitochondria that burn fat to produce heat. Newborns have a relative abundance of brown fat, which protects against exposure to cold temperatures. But by adulthood, most brown fat is lost.

For years, researchers have been searching for therapies that can transform an adult’s white fat into brown fat – browning – which can happen naturally when the bod...