Angela Ente of Lompoc has suffered from Type 1 diabetes since
she was 5 years old.
“I remember coming home from kindergarten and just sleeping and
being thirsty all the time,” she said.
When she felt bad enough to be taken to the hospital, her
glucose levels were 10 times normal levels. Since then, her life
has been calculated in her eating and exercise habits.
“I remember my siblings eating sugary cereals and I got eggs.
Who wants eggs as a kid, when they could have Lucky Charms or
something?” Ente said.
In Type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin, a
hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into
energy for daily life.
There are 23.6 million people in the United States, or 7.8
percent of the population, who have diabetes, according to the
American Diabetes Association.
Ente and Sharon Sorensen of Solvang were two of 15 participants
in a recent study by Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and UC
Santa Barbara researchers to help develop an artificial pancreas
system, known as an APS.
Sorensen can’t even estimate a number of how many times she’s
pricked her finger and other body parts to inject the insulin she
needs. When perfected, the artificial pancreas system would
continuously monitor her blood glucose levels and inject the right
amount of insulin, without her having to prick her finger.
“Being diabetic, you are your own pancreas. It’s frustrating and
I get sick of it. I would love to not even think about it
sometimes. That’s why the research is so important, such as this
artificial pancreas, which could make life better and easier for
those of us with this disease,” Sorensen said.
An artificial pancreas measures blood sugar through a monitor
that continuously reads a person’s glucose levels through a
hair-thin tube inserted just below the skin, typically on the
stomach, according to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
The monitor beams those readings to an insulin pump worn by the
patient.
In an advanced system, the pump would house a sophisticated
computer program that would automatically calculate the necessary
amount of insulin, based on the monitor’s glucose readings, and
deliver the right amount of insulin.
The JDRF considers development of an artificial pancreas system
“a “bridge to a cure,” an essential step toward finding a cure for
Type 1 diabetes.
Sorensen, 70, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 26 years
old, a year after her second child was born.
“I was constantly thirsty and had to use the bathroom all the
time. When I started having trouble seeing, I went to the eye
doctor thinking I needed glasses, and he said I needed to go to my
regular doctor right away,” Sorensen recalled.
She was immediately put into the hospital after her
blood-glucose levels skyrocketed to 700 milligrams per deciliter
(mg/dl); normal levels are anywhere from 70 to 130 mg/dl.
Every time she wakes up, eats, exercises or goes to bed, in
addition to other routine times during the day, Sorensen has to
monitor her blood-glucose levels to make sure they’re near
normal.
During the study she skipped breakfast intentionally, knowing
her glucose levels would rise, so the researchers could see whether
the artificial pancreas would sense the increase and accurately
inject her insulin.
She also ate lunch without having to test herself, as the APS
automatically knew the injection she needed.
Ente and Sorensen were monitored for eight hours a day by
doctors and scientists in case the APS failed.
“The APS is wonderful and worked really well. The glucose
monitoring sensor is much more accurate than I had anticipated. I
just hope that the devices get smaller, because they can be
difficult,” Ente said.
Unlike Sorensen, Ente injects herself with insulin because she
feels the pump, which can hold a few days worth of insulin, is too
bulky and restricts her lifestyle.
“I know it might be superficial, but if I want to wear something
tighter or a dress, where do I put the pump?”
The pump needs to become much smaller to be practical, she said,
“especially for children, where fitting in is so important and
being able to have a normal life without carrying a huge pump
everywhere.”
Chemical engineering professor Frank Doyle, who led the team of
UCSB researchers, came up with the idea for an artificial pancreas
more than a decade ago.
The APS is the first closed-loop system, which doesn’t require
any user input other than initial set-up, to transfer data. The APS
is also compatible with three kinds of insulin pumps and two
glucose monitoring systems, according to Dr. Wendy Bevier, a
clinical research associate at Sansum and also a neighbor of
Sorensen’s.
“The goal is to wear the APS so a diabetic doesn’t have to
inject themselves, and it also takes a lot of guesswork out of it.
There is a lot of over or under estimating, especially in
children,” Bevier said.
Bevier said the APS might not be available to the public for
some years as the research continues. The next study will involve
diabetics riding stationary bicycles to see how the APS responds
when a patient exercises.
For more information on the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute,
log onto www.sansum.org. To read more about Doyle’s research on
glucose monitoring, log onto www.thedoylegroup.org.
