Diabetes is colossal problem around the world; around 9% of adults are estimated to suffer from it. But patients will soon have one more tool at their disposal to manage the condition, with a new smart insulin patch claimed to detect increases in blood sugar levels and add insulin to the bloodstream when it is needed.

The patch, which has been created by researchers at the University of North Carolina, will mean that those living with diabetes may not have to inject the insulin themselves any longer.

Instead the patch is covered with more than one hundred ‘eyelash’-sized needles, which are filled with insulin and glucose-sensing enzymes.

These needles release the insulin when the enzymes detect a rise in a patient’s blood sugar levels.

The World Health Organisation estimated that diabetes was the direct cause of death of around 1.5 million people in 2012. There are currently 387 people worldwide living with diabetes, a number that’s expected to increase to 592 million by 2035. It is hoped that the patch will help make their lives easier.

“We have designed a patch for diabetes that works fast, is easy to use, and is made from nontoxic, biocompatible materials,” said researcher Zhen Gu. “The whole system can be personalised to account for a diabetic’s weight and sensitivity to insulin,so we could make the smart patch even smarter.”

The new patch will help to make it easier to monitor the condition, as well as improving the safety of treatments.

“Injecting the wrong amount of medication can lead to significant complications like blindness and limb amputations, or even more disastrous consequences such as diabetic comas and death,” said researcher John Buse.

The researchers also found that if they varied the dose of enzyme contained within the microneedles the patches would only alter blood sugar levels within a range that is appropriate for the patient.

However it’s not all completely good news as the researchers have not tested the patch on humans yet. Their work so far has only been proven successful when tested against type 1 diabetes on mice.

Despite the lack of human testing – so far – the researchers say that as mice are less sensitive to insulin than humans it is possible that the patch could last longer when used on humans. .

Eventually they want to be able to create patches that a patient would only have to change every few days.

“The hard part of diabetes care is not the insulin shots, or the blood sugar checks, or the diet but the fact that you have to do them all several times a day every day for the rest of your life,” said Buse. “If we can get these patches to work in people, it will be a game changer.”