MIT Creates an Implantable Device That Produces Insulin (mit.edu) 18
An announcement from MIT News:
One promising approach to treating Type 1 diabetes is implanting pancreatic islet cells that can produce insulin when needed, which can free patients from giving themselves frequent insulin injections. However, one major obstacle to this approach is that once the cells are implanted, they eventually run out of oxygen and stop producing insulin.
To overcome that hurdle, MIT engineers have designed a new implantable device that not only carries hundreds of thousands of insulin-producing islet cells, but also has its own on-board oxygen factory, which generates oxygen by splitting water vapor found in the body. The researchers showed that when implanted into diabetic mice, this device could keep the mice's blood glucose levels stable for at least a month. The researchers now hope to create a larger version of the device, about the size of a stick of chewing gum, that could eventually be tested in people with Type 1 diabetes.
"You can think of this as a living medical device that is made from human cells that secrete insulin, along with an electronic life support-system," says Daniel Anderson, a professor in MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering, a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and the senior author of the study.
While the researchers' main focus is on diabetes treatment, they say that this kind of device could also be adapted to treat other diseases that require repeated delivery of therapeutic proteins.
Thanks to Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.
To overcome that hurdle, MIT engineers have designed a new implantable device that not only carries hundreds of thousands of insulin-producing islet cells, but also has its own on-board oxygen factory, which generates oxygen by splitting water vapor found in the body. The researchers showed that when implanted into diabetic mice, this device could keep the mice's blood glucose levels stable for at least a month. The researchers now hope to create a larger version of the device, about the size of a stick of chewing gum, that could eventually be tested in people with Type 1 diabetes.
"You can think of this as a living medical device that is made from human cells that secrete insulin, along with an electronic life support-system," says Daniel Anderson, a professor in MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering, a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and the senior author of the study.
While the researchers' main focus is on diabetes treatment, they say that this kind of device could also be adapted to treat other diseases that require repeated delivery of therapeutic proteins.
Thanks to Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.
Available on subscription only ;-) (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Available on subscription only ;-) (Score:5, Insightful)
Then figure out how to stop the body from producing the wrong amount of insulin and put them out of business. That'll show 'em.
The same with cancer. Figure out how to stop cancer from happening and you can put multi-billion dollar companies out of business since they won't have a market for all those chemo drugs.
Easy peasy.
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"heh, pharma companies only care about profits and dependency"
mRNA based immunotherapy cancer treatments look promising and on the horizon as cures for many variants
"No, not like that!"
Re: Available on subscription only ;-) (Score:1)
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lol what a worthless comment. what does this even mean?
"nuclear weapons being developed in new mexico?" "heh, what a load, call me when the bombs actually start dropping"
"oh theres some type of network that lets people communicate over long distances? pffffshhh, i already use IPX, this is stupid. let me know when i can access all the worlds knowledge in my pocket. back to listening to duran duran"
"some tech bro wants to make electric cars?" "thats stupid, its been tried before, call when i can drive one"
Re: Available on subscription only ;-) (Score:1)
What a worthless reply... when you've lived 40 years with an illness and had promising solutions fed to you every 6 months with nothing materialising, maybe then you'll understand what the other person means.
Re:Available on subscription only ;-) (Score:5, Interesting)
Right now there's still a mechanical part required to oxygenate the implanted cells. Just wait until they figure out how to paste the implant with YAP and TAZ proteins to trigger the body to connect them to the blood supply directly - they will eventually be able to print you a new pancreas for implantation.
What's more interesting to me is the recent MS treatment, an 'anti-vaccine' that stops your immune system from attacking your nerve sheaths. That same technology seems like it could be adapted to type I diabetes to stop the immune system from attacking the pancreas.
Type II diabetics are still screwed though. Neither adding more cells nor stopping the body from attacking existing ones will do anything about insulin resistance.
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Tell me if I’m wrong.
Re:Available on subscription only ;-) (Score:4, Informative)
type 2 diabetes is not very reversible. I was diagnosed at 21 and ...here i'm 54. 33 years later and it's only gotten worse as my diet and exercise regimen has gotten better. My last A1C was 6.3, but it could jump up if I get a wound or something and there would be little I could do about it in that case. Numbers as high as 9.6 have shown up. I take 300u of insulin a day - a horse dose.
I'm not going to pretend that I don't see people with powdered donut dust on their shirts at the endocrinologist, but that is not me. They die pretty quick, too. Lots of cardiovascular problems associated with bad diabetes regimen.
It manifests usually in your 50s but only because the body is able to overpower it with insulin production until then. The genetics are there though. My mom and sister both had it during pregnancy and it faded away afterward until later in life. Grandfather had a virtually identical case to mine, aside from the leg amputation in the early 70s.
Helminthic therapy - reintroducing parasitic hookworms - has shown some promise and may be related to the explosion of type 2 in the last century or so. I'm on the verge of infecting myself to see what it does.
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I suspect you could find a doctor to administer hemlinth therapy? From what I’ve read its generally accepted as legit, if not a frontline therapy. Much better to have a doctor in the loop.
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https://pme.uchicago.edu/news/... [uchicago.edu]
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I'm only half joking. Med tech hates curing people when they can make them dependent forever.
The movie Repo Men [wikipedia.org] comes to mind ...
This isn't new (Score:4, Informative)
Just google encapsulated beta cells. A lot of companies, universities, and organizations have developed this technology and at least 2 are even in clinical trials.
Fibrosis (Score:3)
Sounds like the biggest problem is fibrosis, so until they can figure out some kind of gel or coating with anti-fibrosis agents or have the device cells secrete that.. there's still a lot of work to do.
Where does the hydrogen go? (Score:1)
Insulin (Score:1)