Scientists create “bionic pancreas” to help patients better manage type 1 diabetes

In a major advance, scientists have created ''bionic pancreas'' to relieve some people from the daily ordeal of managing their disease.

The  experimental device that can be worn was successfully tested for actual daily use as it constantly regulated blood sugar and automatically administered insulin or a sugar-boosting drug as needed.

The device was tested over a five-day period as it improved blood-sugar control better than standard monitors and insulin pumps. The test involved 20 adults and 32 teens. Unlike other artificial pancreases in development that only corrected high blood sugar, this one could fix too-low sugar, mimicking the function of natural pancreas.

The device was developed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston University and results were featured Sunday at an American Diabetes Association conference in San Francisco.

The results have been published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr Betul Hatipoglu, an endocrinologist at Cleveland Clinic, who had no role in the work said many patients had been frustrated waiting for a cure, so ''this is really a great new horizon for them.''

The bionic pancreas was meant for Type 1 diabetes, a condition that develops mainly in childhood. The disease afflicts around 5 per cent of the 26 million Americans rendering their bodies incapable of making insulin to turn food into energy.

The Boston Globe reported Steven Russell, an endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who led the study, as saying, the subjects were encouraged to eat whatever they wanted while they wore the bionic pancreas.''

He added, they went on a diabetes vacation, eating ice cream, candy bars, and other things they normally had to refrain from eating.

According to study coauthor Edward Damiano,  an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, who holds a patent on the software that made the automatic dosing decisions, this was not a cure.

He said it was taking diabetes management to its ultimate potential and unburdened people with type 1 diabetes from thinking about all the things that went into managing diabetes every day of their lives.

According to Damiano, whose 15-year-old son developed Type 1 diabetes during his first year of life, he woke up two to three times a night to check his son's blood sugar to prevent it from falling to a dangerously low level, called hypoglycemia, which could cause seizures, coma, and sometimes even death.