A Self-Powered Optogenetic System for Implantable Blood Glucose Control

Diabetes treatment and rehabilitation are usually a lifetime process.Optogenetic engineered designer cell-therapy holds great promise in regulating blood glucose homeostasis.However,portable,sustainable,and long-term energy supplementation has previously presented a challenge for the use of optogenetic stimulation in vivo.Herein,we purpose a self-powered optogenetic system(SOS)for implantable blood glucose control.The SOS consists of a biocompatible far-red light(FRL)source,FRL-triggered transgene-expressing cells,a power management unit,and a flexible implantable piezoelectric nanogenerator(i-PENG)to supply long-term energy by converting biomechanical energy into electricity.Our results show that this system can harvest energy from body movement and power the FRL source,which then significantly enhanced production of a short variant of human glucagon-like peptide 1(shGLP-1)in vitro and in vivo.Indeed,diabetic mice equipped with the SOS showed rapid restoration of blood glucose homeostasis,improved glucose,and insulin tolerance.Our results suggest that the SOS is sufficiently effective in self-powering the modulation of therapeutic outputs to control glucose homeostasis and,furthermore,present a new strategy for providing energy in optogenetic-based cell therapy.