High-tech faux pancreas may change diabetics’ lives

From staff reports
Published: October 27, 2008

An artificial pancreas being tested at the University of Virginia and at other sites around the world could one day transform the way type 1 diabetics manage their disease, researchers say.

Investigators at UVa have completed the first of several international clinical trials to test a computerized method of regulating blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetics. The UVa researchers successfully tested the system in five patients since late June. A parallel study in Padova, Italy, examined three additional subjects.

“Our initial results are very encouraging,” said associate professor Boris Kovatchev, the research team leader. “The system entirely maintained the patients’ blood glucose levels, and the algorithm achieved excellent overnight control without any incidence of hypoglycemia.”

Kovatchev, internationally known for his expertise in applying computational methods to diabetes research, was one of the scientists who developed the system’s novel algorithm, which allows for personalized treatment of each patient. By linking patients’ glucose monitors with their insulin pumps, the program regulates the amount of insulin a patient receives.

The Federal Drug Administration granted researchers approval to test the artificial pancreas in humans based solely on computer simulations, without any prior animal trials. The rare move by the FDA cut research development time from several years to six months.

“This artificial pancreas could one day greatly improve the current methods of self treatment for type 1 diabetes,” Kovatchev said. “Instead of a patient having to measure his or her blood sugar with a glucose meter several times a day and self-administer insulin injections, this system would continuously regulate the patient’s blood glucose, much like the way a non-diabetic’s pancreas functions.”

Complete results from the initial clinical trials at UVa, the University of Padova and the University of Montpellier, France, are expected by the end of the year.