US Approves First Artificial Pancreas For Diabetics

The first automated insulin delivery device – dubbed as artificial pancreas – that can monitor blood sugar levels and regularly administer insulin has been approved in the US. The human pancreas naturally supplies a low, continuous rate of insulin, known as basal or background insulin. In patients with diabetes, the body’s ability to produce or respond to insulin is impaired. MiniMed 670G hybrid closed looped system, intended to aromatically monitor glucose (sugar) and provide appropriate basal insulin doses in people 14 years of age and older with type 1 diabetes, was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This first of its kind technology can provide people with type 1 diabetes greater freedom to live their lives without having to consistently and manually monitor baseline glucose levels and administer insulin. The MiniMed 670G hybrid closed looped system, often referred to as an “artificial pancreas”, is intended to adjust insulin levels with little or no input from the user. It works by measuring glucose levels every five minutes and automatically administering or withholding insulin. The system includes a sensor that attaches to the body to measure glucose levels under the skin; an insulin pump strapped to the body; and an infusion patch connected to the pump with a catheter that delivers insulin.

While the device automatically adjusts insulin levels, users need to manually request insulin doses to counter carbohydrate (meal) consumption. Since the pancreas does not make insulin in the people with type 1 diabetes, patients have to monitor their glucose levels throughout the day and have insulin therapy through injection with a syringe, an insulin pen or insulin pump to avoid becoming hyperglycemic (high glucose levels). In addition, management of type 1 diabetes includes following a healthy eating plan and physical activity.

In Japan, 'Robot Babies' To Make Lonely People Happy

Toyota Moto Corp on 3 October unveiled a doe-eyed palm sized robot, dubbed Kirobo Mini, designed as a synthetic baby companion in Japan, where plummeting birth rates have left many women childless. Toyota’s non automotive venture aims to tap a demographic trend that has put Japan at the forefront of aging among the world’s industrial nations, resulting in a population contraction unprecedented for a country not at war or racked by famine or disease. He wobbles a bit, and this is meant to emulate a seated baby which hasn’t fully developed the skills to balance itself. This vulnerability is meant to invoke an emotional connection. Toyota plans to sell Kirobo Mini, which blinks its eyes and speaks with a baby-like high pitched voice, for $392 in Japan next year. It also comes with a “cradle” that doubles as its baby seat designed to fit in car cup holders.

The Toyota baby automation joins a growing list of companion robots, such as the upcoming Jibo, designed by robotics experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that resembles a swiveling lamp, and Paro, a robot baby seal marketed by Japanese company Intelligent System Co. Ltd. as a therapeutic machine to soothe elderly dementia sufferers. Around a quarter of Japan’s population is over 65 with a dearth of care workers putting a strain on social services. Exacerbated by a reluctance to invite immigrants to bolster its working-age population, Japan’s demographic crunch shows little sign of easing, with the government looking at robots to replenish the thinning ranks of humans. In the past half century births in Japan have halved to around a million a year, according to government statistics, with one in 10 women never marrying. Birth out of wedlock is frowned upon in Japan and much less common than in Western developed nations.

Japan is already a leading user of industrial robots. It has the second-biggest concentration after South Korea with 314 machines per 100,000 employees, according to the International Federation of Robots. New technology to help them better interacts with human’s means robots have begun moving beyond factory floors into homes, offices, shops and hospitals. Kirobo Mini is a stepping stone to more advanced robots that will be able to recognize and react to human emotions.

Body's Natural Defenses Can Treat Eczema

The body’s own natural defenses could be harnessed in a potential therapy for a common skin condition. The discovery may help create new treatments for atopic eczema; the condition causes distressing itchy lesions that can lead to broken skin with increased susceptibility to infection. It can have a severe impact on people’s lives, work and sleep. The discovery follows recent studies that show having an intact natural skin barrier is important in preventing eczema. Now, researchers in the UK have found a way to use the body’s own defense system, to repair tiny breaks in the skin’s natural barrier, which make people more vulnerable to eczema. This is a great chance to work with something that the body makes naturally to develop new therapy for atopic eczema, which affects so many people’s lives. The skin’s barrier can be impaired by genetic flaws, environmental factors or bacterial infections. People with eczema are much more likely to carry bacteria known as Staphylococcus aureus on their skins. In people with eczema, these bacteria can infect skin lesions and cause damage to the skin barrier.

UK Scientists On Verge Of Curing HIV

A British man could become the first person in the world to be cured of HIV using a new therapy designed by a team of scientists from five UK universities. The therapy is combining standard antiretroviral drugs with another one that reactivates dormant HIV and vaccine that induces the immune system to destroy the infected cells. Antiretroviral drugs alone are highly effective at stopping the virus from reproducing but do not eradicate the disease, co must be taken for life. The 44-year old Briton is the first among 50 people to complete a trial of the treatment, designed by scientists and doctors from Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, University College London and King’s College. Early tests show no signs of the virus in his blood. If successful, it offers hope of an irreversible cure for millions of people infected with the virus.

But the person will have to wait for some months before confirmation on whether the treatment has permanently cleared the disease. It is possible that the absence of the virus could be down to the conventional drugs that he has also been taking which can temporarily clear the body of the disease. HIV is able to hide from the immune system in dormant cells where sophisticated testing cannot find it, and therefore resist therapy. The treatment endeavours to trick the virus into emerging from its hiding places and then trigger the body’s immune system to recognize it and attack it, an approach that has been called “kick and kill”. The new therapy works in two stages. Firstly, a vaccine helps the body recognize the HIV infected cells so it can clear them out. Secondly, a new drug called Vorinostat activated the dormant T-cells so they can be spotted by the immune system.