How to develop a personalized diabetes treatment

Diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke, lower limb amputation and premature death. It was the seventh leading cause of death in 2016, according to the World Health Organization. The Diabetes Atlas of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) predicts that by 2045, some 629 million people (aged 20 to 79 years) will have diabetes if no action is taken. outlet. IDF also notes that in high-income countries, about 87 to 91% of all people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, compared to 7 to 12% of people with type 1 diabetes. 2 is increasing in all regions of the world and as the effectiveness of existing treatments varies greatly from one individual to another, scientists are focusing more and more on targeted treatments.

The EU-funded RHAPSODY project aims to examine type 2 diabetes and partners believe that it can potentially revolutionize the way doctors manage this disease. The vice coordinator of the project, Leif Groop from Lund University in Sweden, said in a news from the European Commission that RHAPSODY implied "to individualize the treatment of diabetes". He adds, "It's been too long since we have the same solution."

Personalized medicine

RHAPSODY, together with the EU-funded BEAt-DKD project, has divided type 2 diabetes into five subgroups, according to the same article. The research is based on the results of a Swedish study called ANDIS, initiated by Groop. "Subgroups divide type 2 patients into those with severe autoimmune diabetes, those with severe insulin deficiency, those with severe insulin resistance, and those with mild diabetes mellitus. Obesity or at age. "

With such a clbadification, the risk of complications could be treated properly and patients would be treated accordingly. "For example, while people with severe insulin deficiency are at high risk of developing eye problems, people with severe insulin resistance are five times more likely to develop kidney disease than individuals with severe insulin resistance. other subgroups. "

RHAPSODY is also developing a computerized tool to personalize diabetes care. "By using a blood sample, the so-called clinical support system will be able to badociate a person with a subgroup and then suggest the best treatment plan, taking into account the risk of complications, ensuring that everything is implemented. for these to fail. "The tests will begin in Sweden and Finland by the end of 2018.

The RHAPSODY project (badessing risk and progression of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes to enable disease modification) was initiated "to define a molecular taxonomy of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) that will support the segmentation of patients, [and] inform the design of the clinical trials ", as indicated on the project website A leaflet explains that the project will examine" the diversity of mechanisms leading to diabetes and its deterioration and will identify new biomarkers (measurable indicators of a state or a biological condition) to stratify patients The partners believe that this will help improve health in Europe and around the world by offering diabetic patients the best possible care for their specific disease while reducing health costs public.

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