New technology is emerging!

Edited and written by Yimaitong, please do not reprint without authorization
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Introduction: No medicine, only three minutes a day? A new way to prevent/reverse diabetes may be on the horizon! Non-drug means to normalize blood sugar! A team of scientists from Yale University School of Medicine, UCLA, and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research has developed a unique non-invasive ultrasound technique called peripheral focused ultrasound stimuli (pFUS).
Directing highly directed ultrasound pulses to specific tissues containing nerve endings can be achieved
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Figure 1.
Schematic diagram of peripheral focused ultrasound stimulation technology.
Preclinical research found that in diabetic animal models, using pFUS technology to stimulate specific sensory nerves in the liver can restore blood sugar to normal in just 3 minutes a day.
This non-drug method has achieved Type 2 Diabetes Prevention or Reversal! The research results were recently published in the journal NATURE BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING (IF: 25.
671)
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The researchers said that the hepatic portal plexus can communicate glucose and nutritional status information to the brain, so there is a research hypothesis to explore the therapeutic effect of diabetes by stimulating specific liver areas
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However, research has been difficult because its neural structures are too small to be stimulated with implanted electrodes alone
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The development of this non-implantable technology made the study a reality and found that hyperglycemia could be successfully reversed by pFUS on specific areas of the liver, and that this treatment strategy was effective in three different animal models of diabetes (diabetes mellitus).
mice, rats and pigs)
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Figure 2.
Daily ultrasound stimulation (liver-brain neural pathway) can prevent or reverse the onset of hyperglycemia in multiple T2D animal models.
New technology, can it be done at home? The researchers said that it is still too early to discuss when this technology will be used in the clinic, and professionals are currently required to operate it
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However, as the technology is updated, optimization and simplification can be made in the future, and eventually it is hoped that patients can use it at home
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Looking ahead, driving model-to-clinical translation Currently, the research team is conducting human feasibility trials in patients with type 2 diabetes to determine the possibility of translating this treatment regimen from animal studies to the actual clinic
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Beyond the simple proven efficacy, however, there may be other obstacles to widespread clinical use of the technology
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The researchers say the ultimate goal of the study is to provide people with type 2 diabetes a durable treatment strategy to alleviate and reverse the disease
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Although many antidiabetic drugs are already available to treat hyperglycemia, we are still looking for new ways to improve insulin sensitivity in people with diabetes
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A milestone in the field of chronic disease treatment Some scholars say that if ongoing clinical trials confirm the effects in preclinical studies, ultrasound neuromodulation will undoubtedly bring a new treatment option to patients
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The discovery also represents an important milestone in the field of bioelectronic medicine -- the discovery of new ways to use novel medical devices to modulate the body's nervous system to treat chronic diseases such as diabetes
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After reporting the preclinical findings, the researchers conducted additional "dose" studies, including the type of ultrasound pulse and duration of treatment
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More research results will be released at the end of the year
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Reference: [1] Cotero, V.
, Graf, J.
, Miwa, H.
et al.
Stimulation of the hepatoportal nerve plexus with focused ultrasound restores glucose homoeostasis in diabetic mice, rats and swine.
Nat.
Biomed.
Eng (2022 ).
https://doi.
org/10.
1038/s41551-022-00870-w.
[2]Therapeutic ultrasound modulates autonomic nerve pathways in diabetes.
Nat.
Biomed.
Eng (2022).
https://doi.
org/10.
1038 /s41551-022-00878-2