An engineering breakthrough in Type 1 diabetes

Science, Engineering, News

A pre-clinical animal study successfully reverse Type 1 diabetes within 24 hours and maintain insulin independence for at least 90 days. Transitioning to humans with type one diabetes is the ultimate goal of the therapy.

Here’s how it works: the collagen formulation provides a new set of pancreatic cells to replace the clusters of cells, called islets, that aren’t releasing insulin to monitor blood glucose levels.

An engineering breakthrough in Type 1 diabetes could help dogs and humans alike! The disease affects about one in every 100 companion animals in the U.S., including dogs and cats, and approximately 1.25 million American children and adults.

A multi-institution team of Purdue engineers, with funding from the National Science Foundation, is developing a new therapy that could replace the need for daily insulin injections for both canines and humans. The therapy has the potential to reduce the number of shots to one shot every few months. This breakthrough could make managing the disease much easier.

“We rescued Lexi, and we’ve had her for several years. Recently we’ve noticed that there’s some different changes that she’s had so we did take her to the doctor and found out that she has diabetes. Having to give her shots twice a day I have to constantly be thinking about where I am and what time, and when I need to be home. It does affect a lot. If I could have it to where I didn't have to worry about that every day it would make a tremendous change in my life. And my family’s life.”

A pre-clinical animal study conducted collaboratively with the Indiana Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Disease shows that the team’s therapy is the first minimally invasive therapy to successfully reverse Type 1 diabetes within 24 hours and maintain insulin independence for at least 90 days.

Here’s how it works: the collagen formulation provides a new set of pancreatic cells to replace the clusters of cells, called islets, that aren’t releasing insulin to monitor blood glucose levels. The team is collaborating with Purdue’s College of Veterinary Medicine to test their formula on dogs suffering from the disease.

We’ve completed pre-clinical animal testing and would like to work with pet owners to apply this cell therapy to dogs with diabetes. With the ultimate goal of transitioning to humans with type one diabetes. The results are promising. We are so excited and interested to move forward with dogs and humans because of the pre-clinical animal testing that we saw an almost immediate lowering of blood glucose and maintenance of blood glucose for a prolonged period of time.

Credit: National Science Foundation
Country of origin: United States
Language: English
Release date: November 1, 2018

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