New AI-powered tool to transform type 1 diabetes diagnosis, treatment
Australian researchers have pioneered a new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool to assess the risk of developing type 1 diabetes (T1D)
- NEW DELHI — Australian researchers have pioneered a new artificial
intelligence (AI)-powered tool to assess the risk of developing type 1 diabetes
(T1D).
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- The tool, developed by researchers at Western Sydney
University, predicts treatment responses, potentially changing how the disease
is diagnosed and managed.
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- The tool utilises an innovative risk score -- Dynamic
Risk Score (DRS4C) which can classify individuals as having or not having T1D.
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- It is based on microRNAs -- small RNA molecules measured
from blood -- to help accurately capture the changing risk of T1D.
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- "T1D risk prediction is timely, with therapies that
can delay T1D progression becoming recognised and available. Since early-onset
T1D before the age of 10 years is particularly aggressive and linked to up to
16 years of reduced life expectancy, accurately predicting progression gives
doctors a powerful tool to intervene sooner," said Professor Anand
Hardikar, lead investigator from the University's School of Medicine and Translational
Health Research Institute.
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- In their article published in the journal Nature
Medicine, the research analysed molecular data in 5,983 study samples from
participants across India, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Hong Kong, New Zealand,
and the US, to develop DRS4C.
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- By leveraging AI, the researchers enhanced the risk
score, which was validated in 662 other participants. Just an hour after
therapy, the risk score predicted which individuals with T1D would remain
insulin-free.
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- In addition to T1D risk and drug efficacy prediction, the
risk score could potentially discriminate T1D from Type 2 diabetes.
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- Dr. Mugdha Joglekar, lead researcher, from the School of
Medicine and Translational Health Research Institute at the University,
explained the difference between genetic and dynamic risk markers, adding that
genetic testing offered a static view of risk.
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- "Genetic markers identify lifelong risk, it's like
knowing you live in a flood zone, but dynamic risk scores offer a real-time
check on the rising water levels; it reflects current risk rather than a
lifelong sentence, allowing for timely and adaptive monitoring without
stigma," said Joglekar.
