Does anyone know the latest news on the Artifical Pancreas?
Does anyone else wonder why there isnt a cure yet? I sometimes feel they have the cure but won't release it since they make so much money off drugs and supplies. It just seems like a disease that should have a cure already.
A mexican doctor solved the antirejection drug problem some years ago by using the certoli cell from pig testicles and it seemed to work better then all the imunosuppresants out there. Apperantly the medical comunity laughed him out of the room when he presented his findings though.
Hey Vince,do you have any more specific info on this? Like a name or proceedings paper?
I think it's super important to remember that a cure would make trillions of dollars. Everyone is in the money-making game, including the potential developers of a cure.
I met a dr about a month ago with is working on the artificial pancreas. Apparently they are currently working on for in-hospital patients, both diabetic and non-diabetic. He explained it to me and presented a slide show, and while it was pretty cool and seemed to be headin in a good direction, it was only for the hospital. It measures glucose levels in patients and then reacts, expecially during surgeries so that the patient has a better chance of survival and recovery. According to him, most artificial pancreas work for the individual diabetic patient has slowed and picked up for the in-hospital type. I was pretty annoyed by this news because I was under the impression that someone was close.
On the brighter side, I also met with the dr's coworkers who is diabetic and on a panel to discuss new diabetic advancements. He asked about some things that I want to see improved and he would present them to the panel and the conference (sorry I don't remember the name) and hopefully some people will pick up the project ideas. I basically just ranted about diabetes and determined that I really wanted an artificial pancreas, and CGMS and infusion set in one so I'm not sticking myself numerous times, an infusion set that can stay in for longer than 3 days, and to somehow get glucose in the pump so there dangerous lows can be treated with the press of a button. Hopefully something good will come of this in the next couple months!
I sort of hope that they work on the stem cell stuff first. As with any technology, an artificial pancreas could malfunction.
[quote user="Sarah"]
I sort of hope that they work on the stem cell stuff first. As with any technology, an artificial pancreas could malfunction.
[/quote]Accordingl to our endo, they're making progress with the stem cell stuff, but there's still some signfincant issues to iron out. Also, there's no use replacing beta cells if the autoimmune part is not solved first; any new cells would be killed off just as the originals were. Small steps, but I think they're heading in the right direction overall.
In the meantime, I'd be happy to see William with an artificial pancreas once they got it working well. Apparently it still is not as quick to respond to meals as needed to control BS effectively; you still have to bolus when you eat.
Mo
[quote user="ajax"]
I think it's super important to remember that a cure would make trillions of dollars. Everyone is in the money-making game, including the potential developers of a cure.
[/quote]So right. Companies are always looking for what is going to give them a leg up on the competition. If one company develops (or otherwise obtains the rights to) "the cure" - what person with diabetes isn't going rush to buy it? So that one company stands to benefit hugely. (And all their competitors do not lose that much business because aren't they being mostly supported by T2s? What what insurance company wouldn't pay for it? - versus having to cover monthly supplies and treatments for all the diabetic complications.
However the interesting question would be: what amount of money would be too much pay for "the cure"?
[quote user="Monique H"]
Accordingl to our endo, they're making progress with the stem cell stuff, but there's still some signfincant issues to iron out. Also, there's no use replacing beta cells if the autoimmune part is not solved first; any new cells would be killed off just as the originals were. Small steps, but I think they're heading in the right direction overall.
[/quote]
Yeah ... I'd wondered about how the body wouldn't destroy the new beta cells. How did they do it in that Brazilian study a few years ago ... weren't they on anti-rejection drugs I think?
I know what you mean about the cure. I wonder if part of the issue, maybe a tiny part of it anyway, is the issue of immunosuppressive drugs that also have to be taken with any sort of transplant...
But I think that the drug companies AND general medical lobby don't want the cure. I think they'll fight it with their last collective breath.
[quote user="Sarah"]
Yeah ... I'd wondered about how the body wouldn't destroy the new beta cells. How did they do it in that Brazilian study a few years ago ... weren't they on anti-rejection drugs I think?
[/quote]Of the patients that were insulin free when the study was first published, only half or so stayed insulin free after a few more years. However... since the transplant was autologous, I don't think immunosuppressants were required though.
Different research projects are working on different possibilities.
For example Sansum Clinic is working with a company in Japan on the stem cell project and working with the engineering department at UCSB on the artificial pancrease project.
I thought there was a press release in the last month or so from UCSB and Sansum Clinic about sucess with the srtificial pancrease? Maybe it was just in one of my alumn newsletters?