Artificial Pancreas To Hit The Market By 2018

A group of researchers from the United Kingdom revealed that the world's first artificial pancreas is expected to be released in the global market in as early as 2018. This will offer a better way to monitor and control glucose levels of people with type 1 diabetes without daily insulin injections.

Type 1 diabetes affects approximately 1.25 million children and adults in the United States. According to Medical News Today, the condition happens when the beta cells in the pancreas stop producing insulin which is the hormone is responsible for removing glucose from the blood and transporting it to cells, where it is converted into energy. Without insulin, blood glucose levels will rise.

It has also been reported that in order to control the blood sugar from rising and dropping, patients with type 1 diabetes should have daily doses of insulin, either by injection or an insulin pump. Injecting insulin remains to be the most common form of administering insulin. Patients are normally required to have at least 2 daily injections. Insulin pump is a more advanced way to administer insulin. This is a device that continuously delivers insulin doses for 24 hours via a catheter inserted under the patient's skin.

Science Daily reported authors Drs. Roman Hovorka and Hood Thabit, of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, saying that this method puts pressure on type 1 diabetic patients having to regularly check their blood glucose level to make sure they are not too high or low, and to make sure that they inject themselves with the correct amount of insulin.

Hovorka and Thabit said that the new pancreas device combines checking the blood glucose level and administering insulin into one closed system, Science Alert reported. "In trials to date, users have been positive about how use of an artificial pancreas gives them 'time off' or a 'holiday' from their diabetes management, since the system is managing their blood sugar effectively without the need for constant monitoring by the user," they said.

Other than artificial pancreas, there are other alternative methods to address type 1 diabetes. One is pancreas transplantation and the other is the transplant of beta cells from the pancreas that produce insulin. But, recipients of the transplants need to use drugs to suppress their immune system just like in other organ transplantation.

In whole pancreas transplant, a major surgery is needed, while in beta cell islet transplant, the body's immune system still has a possibility to attack the transplanted cells, and kills a majority of them. However, the artificial pancreas does not require patients to use immunosuppressant drugs and to undergo major surgery.

Researchers involved are working tirelessly to meet the challenges faced by the artificial pancreas technology. One is insulin; fast acting ones can take up to 2 hours to reach its peak levels in the bloodstream. This makes it hard for a single device to constantly monitor and keep track on its own, and this may affect the blood sugar levels.

They are also considering possible problems in security. Artificial pancreas will work as a computer, and hackers can take advantage of it.  

"As closed loop devices may be vulnerable to cybersecurity threats such as interference with wireless protocols and unauthorized data retrieval, implementation of secure communications protocols is a must," the research team noted.

Besides these practical hurdles that stand in the way of the device's launch, there are also a ton of regulatory boards that need to sign off on them before they hit the market. But, after carefully checking the progress and these challenges, the researchers stay hopeful that some type of artificial pancreas will hit the market in 2018.

"Significant milestones moving the artificial pancreas from laboratory to free-living unsupervised home settings have been achieved in the past decade, the team said."Through inter-disciplinary collaboration, teams worldwide have accelerated progress and real-world closed-loop applications have been demonstrated."

"Given the challenges of beta-cell transplantation, closed-loop technologies are, with continuing innovation potential, destined to provide a viable alternative for existing insulin pump therapy and multiple daily insulin injections," they concluded.