The Future For Diabetes: The underlying cause of diabetes is yet to be discovered however research today is slowly starting to develop novel new approaches to the disease’s treatment. It may be that a cure is found in the not to distant future but for now, a number of new therapies are being closely studied in many of the countries around the world.
Advancements In Glucose Control
Recent advances have meant that patients can monitor their own blood glucose levels at home or indeed on the move but this requires the diabetic to prick their finger every time they need to take a reading. Is the next step an implantable glucose sensor that will give off some kind of signal when the glucose concentration rises or falls below the normal limits? Some researchers say it is and indeed a number of laboratories around the globe are working towards developing such a monitor.
Other research, that has been going on for years, involves shining a special light through the skin in order to establish a glucose reading however until these new types of monitors have been tried and tested over and over again, we will not be seeing them on the market as an incorrect glucose reading could ultimately end in disaster.
Advancements In Insulin Administration
According to recent reports, researchers have now developed an insulin pump that is actually implanted into the patient. This pump measures and monitors the concentration of glucose within the blood and if a rise or fall is recorded the exact amount of insulin required to bring the level back to normal can be administered, without the patient even knowing it.
In this way, the pump emulates the action of the natural beta cells in a non-diabetic person. Unfortunately however, prototypes have been plagued with problems including clogging and the detection of other bodily chemicals which affect the readings taken; hence the implantable insulin pump is still in the experimental stage.
Advancements In Surgery
The majority of the research involving surgical intervention centres on the pancreas and the beta cells for obvious reasons. Pancreas transplants are becoming a widely recognized possibility in cases of severe diabetes but the procedure is relatively difficult and is often combined with a kidney transplant. In addition, the pancreas is prone to rejection and so the patient is at risk from other illnesses while they are immunosupressed.
A second option that has gained widespread attention involves the transplant of beta cells by injecting them in such a way that they lodge in the liver. Unfortunately these cells are again prone to rejection as they are seen by the white blood cells as foreign bodies. Thus, researchers are now trying to develop a tube which protects the beta cells from the immune system but still allows insulin molecules produced by the implanted beta cells to pass out and into the blood stream.
Advancements In Genetics
Genetic manipulation research is at present focussing on reprogramming a normal body cell to become a beta cell so that it can produce insulin. Each cell within the human body
contains all of the genetic information needed to create the entire body however only specific sections of the DNA is ‘read’ in different types of cell, so for example a skin cell will read the section of DNA that says ‘you are a skin cell’.
Thus if a number of skin cells could be reprogrammed to read the section of DNA that says ‘you are a beta cell’ then they would act as a beta cell and produce insulin, just as normal beta cells do.
This research is still in the very early stages but if it did at some time in the future actually work, then it would eliminate the rejection problems encountered with transplants and put a stop to the need to self-administer insulin.
