Engineering news
The US team, led by GE Research, demonstrated the ability to prevent or even reverse the onset of diabetes in studies of three different preclinical ‘model systems’.
The findings represent a significant milestone in the field of bioelectronic medicine, which is exploring new ways to treat chronic diseases such as diabetes using electronic devices to modulate the body’s nervous system.
GE Research has spent the last six years developing a novel, non-invasive stimulation technique that uses ultrasound to stimulate specific neural pathways within organs that are associated with disease. The diabetes studies were supported in part by Darpa (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency), and also involved The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, Yale School of Medicine, and Albany Medical College.
Co-leader of the research Christopher Puleo, a senior biomedical engineer, said: “We have shown that ultrasound can be used to prevent or reverse diabetes in these preclinical studies. We’re now in the midst of human feasibility trials with a group of Type-2 diabetic subjects, which begins our work toward clinical translation.”
He added: “The use of ultrasound could be a gamechanger in how bioelectronic medicines are used and applied to disease, such as Type- 2 diabetes, in the future. Non-pharmaceutical and device-based methods to augment or replace the current drug treatments may add a new therapeutic choice for physicians and patients in the future.”
Studies indicated that the focused ultrasound activates neurons through ion channels that are sensitive to mechanical forces. Study co-author Dino Di Carlo from UCLA described it as “a completely new avenue to interface with our body and treat disease”.
Senior author Sangeeta Chavan from the Feinstein Institutes said: “There are no long-lasting clinical treatments in tackling diabetes. This exciting research is a major step forward to harness a novel approach of using ultrasound stimulation and bioelectronic medicine to alleviate and potentially reverse a disease that affects millions worldwide.”
GE Research and its collaborators are now doing additional preclinical and initial clinical studies to investigate the effects of alternate dosing, such as type of ultrasound pulse and duration of treatment. The team will report on those studies later this year.
The findings were published in the latest issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering.
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