Science

Wireless sensor watches blood sugar for diabetics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have developed an implantable sensor that measures blood sugar continuously and transmits the information without wires - a milestone, they said, in diabetes treatment.

The device worked in one pig for more than a year and in another for nearly 10 months with no trouble, they reported online today Science Translational Medicine.

It takes the diabetes field a step closer to development of an artificial pancreas, according to the team at the University of California San Diego and nearby privately held GlySens Inc.

"You can run the device for a year or more with it constantly working, and recording glucose quite satisfactorily," bioengineering professor Dr. David Gough, who led the study, said in a statement.

"We hope to begin the first human trial in a few months,"

He said his team has been testing such experimental devices in pigs for 31 years.

Medical device makers have been working to develop a so-called artificial pancreas to deliver insulin to patients with type 1 diabetes. Dr. Gough's team said their device could also work for people with type 2 diabetes.

The implant used in the pig study is about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) in diameter, and 5/8 inch (12.70 cm) thick. "We hope to make it smaller in the future," Dr. Gough said.

It transmits 10 to 12 feet (3 to 4 meters).

The device uses a sensor that detects oxygen in the tissue where it is implanted to measure glucose. "The present artificial pancreases use needle-like sensors or wire-like sensors," Dr. Gough said. "This device is likely to be more appealing to people with diabetes. There is nothing protruding from the body."

Dr. Gough foresees ways to have the glucose monitor send its signals to cell phones.

"There are parents with diabetic children who spend their nights worrying that their child in a nearby bedroom may go into nocturnal hypoglycemia," he said. An implanted sensor could wake a parent if the child's glucose levels dropped to a dangerous level.

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, which helped pay for the study, has been working with several companies to create a seamless artificial pancreas.

Dr. Gough and colleagues at the university founded GlySens, and the company collaborates with the institution.

Sci Transl Med 2010 August.

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