Diabetes research organization JDRF, along with Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, and the College of Engineering at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have announced positive results from a trial of an artificial pancreas used in conjunction with inhaled insulin taken at mealtimes. In 2010, MannKind Corporation announced that it would provide Afrezza ultra-rapid-acting inhaled insulin for the study.
Sansum Diabetes Director of Research and Technology Howard Zisser, the principal investigator commented, “Our preliminary results on the artificial pancreas working in tandem with the administration of mealtime ultra-fast-acting inhaled insulin are most promising. It’s very straightforward to load the inhaler device and take the insulin. There’s no needle involved and the small dose of inhaled insulin prevents the blood glucose from uprising very quickly just after eating or falling too fast an hour or two later. In this way, the subcutaneous insulin being supplied by the artificial pancreas’ pump has the chance to actually work better.”
Co-principal investigator Francis J. Doyle, III of UCSB added, “The subcutaneous route of delivery is a very slow way to push insulin into the body, compared to the appearance of glucose in the blood stream following the meal. So we need a much quicker way to intervene. One way to do that is to dose with the pump, but again, you’re using a subcutaneous route of pushing insulin, which is slow compared to the way the pancreas would do this. So, by using inhaled, ultra-rapid-acting insulin, we have a chance now to manage blood glucose even better by emulating a more natural pancreatic function. We can get the insulin quickly into circulation and it will be cleared quickly and safely from the bloodstream.”
Read the JDRF press release.
Watch a video about the artificial pancreas/inhaled insulin project:
