Will the artificial pancreas cure diabetes in 10 years?

PRINCETON, N.J. - Dec. 11, 2014 - PRLog -- People afflicted with type-1 diabetes currently have two main options to manage their disease: a blood glucose meter and manual injections or insulin pumps that require manual input of blood glucose concentration (BGC) measurements and insulin bolus delivery. The large capacity for human error and personal lifestyle effects render these technologies incapable of consistently providing the ideal amount of insulin despite the heavy burden on patients. Current research is focused on closing the loop to develop a full day automated insulin pump solution. The goal is to create an artificial pancreas able to continuously and autonomously measure and interpret BGC, calculate and deliver the proper dose of insulin.

Progress Towards An Artificial Pancreas

The artificial pancreas has the potential to revolutionize the way type-1 diabetes is treated and increase the quality of life for these patients. The first attempt to mimic a healthy pancreas was the Medtronic MiniMed 530G with Enlite. The next step towards the artificial pancreas will be to develop more complex algorithms to regulate blood glucose levels. Until recently, the core limiting step to reach a true artificial pancreas has been to develop algorithms to calculate insulin (and possibly glucagon) delivery. This complexity arises from the numerous physiological factors that dictate insulin needs.

Alcimed identified more than 100 institutes around the world that are leveraging their resources to develop clinical management practices, hormone metabolism models, and advanced algorithms to integrate into closed loop systems. Both the industry and university researchers are working on more than forty-five different closed-loop algorithm approacheswhich can be categorized in three main types. The first is fuzzy control, a preprogrammed set of rules that evaluates actions against the rules. The second is a proportional-integral-derivative controller, a calculus-based algorithm that adjusts the input by minimizing error. The third is a model predictive control, an insulin glucose model that predicts future scenarios and optimizes decisions based on what has happened and what will happen. In addition to these algorithms, researchers are exploring complementary modules to enhance the algorithm robustness, safety, and efficacy. These complimentary modules will be critical to fully closing the loop.

Where Will We Be In 10 Years?

Research is progressing quickly. Academic researchers believe they have reached the level that enables the industry to further develop and clinically test these next-generation algorithms, yet no significant partnership has been concluded. Another key challenge will be shaping the regulatory framework and addressing main concerns raised by an unsupervised fully automated closed loop device that makes decisions for a patient.

Within 10 years, people with type-1 diabetes will likely be able to use a closed-loop system to automatically regulate their blood glucose level for at least part of the day. According to Zakaria Manai, Project Manager at Alcimed, “the continued commitment of some industrial players such as Medtronic and Animas (Johnson & Johnson) to advance artificial pancreas is a strong driver. The remaining key success factor will be for the industry to further partner with the most advanced institutions in order to bring those academic innovations to the market”.

About Alcimed

Alcimed (http://www.alcimed.com/html/en/) is an Innovation and New Business consulting firm, specializing in innovative sectors: life sciences (biotech, healthcare, and food), energy, aeronautics, ICT, chemicals, cosmetics, materials, transportation, space and defense. Thanks to a team of 180 highly skilled people, Alcimed’s mission is to help our clients in the private and public sectors explore and develop uncharted territories. This mission covers four types of uncharted territories: New Technologies, Market Innovation, High growth geographies and Strategic Foresight. The company, headquartered in Paris has seven offices in Europe, one in the United States and one in Asia.


Sources:

[1] Type-1 diabetes worldwide prevalence: Maahs DM, West NA, Lawrence JM, Mayer-Davis EJ. Epidemiology of type 1 diabetes. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. 2010;39:481–497

[2] Number of patients using insulin pumps: Insulin Pump Therapy Background, Medtronic