-
Diabetes
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a disease characterised by an abnormal rise in blood sugar levels. It is considered one of the major epidemics of the 21st century.
Fingertip diagnosis
A common disease
536999860
people with diabetes in the world in 2021
Diagnostic
239699860
diabetics are unaware of their condition according to the IDF Atlas 2021
Regulation
1
percent of patients have poorly regulated blood sugar levels
What are the causes of diabetes?
Diabetes is a serious and chronic disease that occurs when the body cannot produce enough insulin or cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.
Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas. Its role is to keep blood sugar levels stable. When blood sugar levels rise, for example after a meal, insulin helps lower the glycemia to bring blood sugar levels back to normal.
Insulin also enables the body’s cells to take up the sugar circulating in the blood according to their needs (for example, muscle cells need it during physical effort) and use it to convert it into energy. If necessary, insulin allows the unused sugar to be stored.
Therefore, insufficient or ineffective insulin leads to an accumulation of sugar in the blood and an excessive increase in blood sugar levels (hyperglycaemia). If left untreated, this hyperglycaemia is maintained at too high a level: it is this chronic hyperglycaemia that defines diabetes.
The link between diabetes and insulin
Let's focus on type 1 diabetes :
5-10% of all diabetes cases are type 1
No or very low insulin production when the beta cells in the pancreas cannot produce it properly
Usually diagnosed between the ages of 0 and 40 Mainly young children or teenagers
Am I diabetic?
Fasting blood glucose measurement (in g of glucose per litre of blood):
- Hypoglycemia : 0,7 g/L
- Normal blood glucose range : 0,8 – 1,1 g/L
- Pre-diabetic patient: blood glucose between 1.10 and 1.26 g/L
- Diabetic patient: blood glucose > 1.26 g/L (on 2 successive tests)
The diagnosis of diabetes
Long term symptoms of untreated diabetes
Slow healing
Frequent urination
Skin dryness
Redundant foot problems
Excessive thirst
Sleep disorders
Blurred vision
Insulin delivery
Insulin delivery devices
At present, there is no cure for type 1 diabetes. However, there are treatments to normalize it, but the ultimate goal is to develop treatments that allow the person to live as normal a daily life as possible, with a normal body weight, preventing acute problems (hypoglycaemia or hyperglycaemia) and reducing the risk of long-term complications.
Our team is currently developping two medical devices.
Our solutions
Insulin delivery device
Principle of ExOlin ®
- A medical device for physiological delivery of insulin, currently under development
- Should allow instant intraperitoneal (IP) delivery of insulin by simple subcutaneous injection (through external connection to a syringe, pen, insulin pump, etc.)
- Adaptable to many applications and conditions other than diabetes that require physiological delivery of drugs or active ingredients
- Patients will be able to keep their injection methods (syringe, pen, pump, artificial pancreas, etc.)
- More physiological intraperitoneal delivery than subcutaneous delivery
- Better long-term blood glucose stabilisation expected
Bio Artificial Pancreas
Principle of the MailPan ®
- A medical device for the encapsulation of insulin-secreting cells, currently under development for the treatment of type 1 diabetes
- Possibility to renew the cells without surgery, thanks to an input and output connected to the device
- Adaptable to cell therapies other than diabetes that require immune system protection.
- Immuno-protective membranes to avoid the heavy immunosuppressive treatments required for diabetes cell therapy (e.g. human pancreatic islet transplantation)
- Unlimited access to insulin-secreting cells, in particular through the use of stem cells = end of dependence on donated human pancreas
- Autonomous and physiological regulation of blood sugar levels as the cells detect the level of glucose in the blood and release the necessary amount of insulin
- An innovation in movement : the DECAPES project
