Sanford Health screenings and new drug help slow progression of Type 1 Diabetes – Sioux Falls Live

SIOUX FALLS — Sanford Health researcher and investigator Dr. Kurt Griffin always worries about using what he calls the “c word” when it comes to Type 1 Diabetes.

That word is cure.

What he views as a “cure” currently is working on prevention to catch the disease early, delay its effects and buy time as advances are made in fighting and slowing its progression.

And he believes researchers at the Sanford research facility in northeast Sioux Falls, and multiple similar trial and study sites across the country, are making progress in a big way.

The keys are early screening for the disease in children and a new drug called teplizumab — sold under the brand name Tzield — that was approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) late last year.

Sanford offers the screening through all of its 152 clinics that serve patients across five Upper Midwest states.

The program is called “PLEDGE” and it can detect the early stages of the disease that affects one in 200 people in the country before they have symptoms.

The early identification, he said, allows doctors to monitor those with the diabetes antibodies that destroy the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, which the body uses to turn food into energy.

Without insulin, blood sugars can increase over time to dangerous levels if left untreated

Contributed / Sanford Health

If not caught early, the life-threatening condition diabetic ketoacidosis can develop, which requires hospitalization at the time of diagnosis.

Type 1 Diabetes can also shorten a life span for a patient by many years.

“If we have good control from the beginning we can cut that way back,” Griffin said.

That’s why the screening and monitoring is so important, he said.

More and more families are signing up for the testing program that simply requires a finger prick to get a drop of blood from children.

As of this week, there are 7,814 families across the Sanford network that have signed consent forms to do the testing with 52 patients being monitored for any advances in the disease.

“It’s going up every year,” he said about the families involved. “When people learn about it, it’s easier to say yes.”

Griffin said the testing is “offered to everyone” at the clinics

The other major step forward is the approval of teplizumab, which can slow the progression of the disease in children age 8 and over. The drug appeared to slow the progression of the disease by six years and longer in 40% of the patients during testing.

The drug was studied in clinical trials, including at Sanford, and it eventually gained the FDA approval last November.

Contributed / Sanford Health

“It’s really an exciting period,” Griffin said about the screening and the new drug.

He said insulin has been around for 102 years. Teplizumab is really the only big step forward since that time.

While those steps are progressing, there are also other studies and trials underway at Sanford and around the country into cell-based and disease-modifying methods.

Sanford has been working for example on a trial, with a paper currently under peer review, for altering the immune system to help prevent cells from attacking the pancreas.

Also, another method has been an infusion of stem cells into patients.

Those methods can involve cells that make insulin.

Meanwhile, Griffin said with modern technology there are improvements being made every year in glucose monitors and insulin pumps for those who are taking insulin to ward off problems.

“The challenge for those with Type 1 Diabetes is that you never get a break,” he said.

For teenagers, especially, Griffin said, it can be a big challenge with so many other things going on in their lives. The end game, of course, is to find a way to stop having to do such careful monitoring and insulin injections.

“That’s what we are aiming for,” Griffin said.

The longtime researcher, who has been at Sanford for 10 years and works with a team of about nine others, said he is optimistic but realistic.

“We are making progress, more and more, but we can’t predict a timeline. I can say we are starting to get traction,” he said.

The keys for now are to have children screened for the disease early and to slow the progression.

That, in itself, is a “success,” he said.

For information and to join the PLEDGE screening, families can visit sanfordhealth.org/PLEDGE or call 877-878-4825.