The Israeli company Therapeutics is the first in the world to create an artificial pancreas. It was based on pig lung tissue and insulin-producing cells.
An artificial gland is implanted into the patient’s body, after which it begins to analyze the level of glucose in the blood and inject the amount of insulin necessary for the body.
Prior to that, doctors could only keep diabetes under control with medication, according to Dr. Kunicher, CEO of Therapeutics. With the development of the disease, the pancreas stops producing insulin, and the development of Israeli scientists allows you to restore this function.
The Israeli company Therapeutics is the first in the world to create an artificial pancreas, which analyzes the level of glucose in the blood and inject the amount of insulin necessary for the body.
The project, which was given the name “Betalin”, has already received 3.5 million dollars of investment, another 5 million is planned to be attracted to the beginning of clinical trials. The preliminary cost of an artificial gland for one patient is estimated at $ 50,000.
According to the WHO, type 1 and type 2 diabetes has already affected more than 500 million people. More than 150 million patients are forced to constantly inject themselves with insulin. There are many treatments for diabetes known to medicine, but all of them are only about controlling the symptoms. Now, insulin dependent people will be candidates for innovative treatments.
About 500 million people in the world suffer from type 1 and 2 diabetes to varying degrees, with 150 million of them getting daily insulin injections.
World Health Organization
Interestingly, one of the members of the project’s advisory board, the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, molecular biologist Sidney Altman, also has diabetes. He and his mother have type 2 diabetes, and the scientist’s brother died of the disease.
The pioneering project is based on years of research by Professor Eduardo Mirani, Head of the Faculty of Sciences at the Hebrew University. He studied the mechanism of interaction of cells of the pancreas with connective tissue.
“The pancreas is a special structure: it works as an independent organ, and not as a group of cells, which allows it to be placed in any area of the body”
Professor Mitrani
Science director Avi Travis says the new technology is the next step in a technique known as the Edmonton Protocol. According to her, patients are injected with cells of islets of pancreatic cells or “islets of Langerhans”.
“Doctors take an islet suspension from a donor and inject it into a diabetic,” explains Avi Travis. — Sometimes it helps to significantly alleviate the patient’s condition for several years. However, this technique is technically difficult to perform and creates the risk of complications, such as premature death of the transplanted tissue, and also necessitates the administration of immunosuppressants (drugs for artificial weakening of the immune system) in order to avoid rejection of the implanted tissues.
Microstructure “Betalin” provides better functioning of pancreatic cells and has a longer therapeutic effect. The procedure itself is much easier, it is also safe and cost effective. “
Now the company actively cooperates with British, American, German, Italian and Chinese clinics interested in islet cell transplantation. Recently, Therapeutics also received a grant from the Office of Innovation and the Government of Italy, and in 2017, the Betalin project was awarded as the best startup in the field of pharmaceuticals at the MIXiii Biomed conference.
According to Avi Travis, the first phase of the research will take about two years. Then, if the treatment is proven to be effective, scientists plan to move on to seeking regulatory approval. At first, the gland is implanted only for a certain number of people, but later all insulin dependent patients can use it.