Over 1,000 Virginians died in the past year from opioid overdoses, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overdose deaths have been decreasing in recent years as harm reduction programs have equipped family and community members to administer life-saving naloxone, a medication that can reverse an opioid overdose. Researchers at Virginia Tech are developing a new technology that could help save more people.
Naloxone has to be administered by another person, and many accidental overdoses occur when there isn’t anyone around to help, said Wujin Sun, assistant professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech.
“It happens because the people are alone. There’s no one around to help,” Sun explained.
Sun and another researcher, Penghui Zhao, an instructor in Virginia Tech’s Academy of Integrated Science, developed patch that can detect if someone has taken too much of an opioid.
“So if necessary, it will trigger the release of the drug, which is naloxone, to reverse overdose,” Sun explained.
The patch has been tested on mice and more animal tests are needed before human trials would be feasible, but Sun said early results show promise.
Sun researched cancer and diabetes treatments before focusing on helping prevent opioid overdoses. He said other types of medication could be administered with similar patches to treat cancer and other diseases.
