Sunday Times E-Edition

Finally a lifeline for diabetics

January 23 1922 — The first successful test on a human patient with type 1 diabetes is performed when a second dose of insulin is administered to Leonard Thompson, 14, who was dying in the Toronto General Hospital, Canada. Diagnosed some three years earlier, he was put on the only known treatment: a starvation diet. Leonard, weighing less than 30kg, was carried into hospital by his father Harold on December 2 1921. Scientists had identified cells in the pancreas that produce insulin and that are destroyed in type 1 diabetes. The challenge was to extract the insulin without destroying it. On May 17 1921, Canadian surgeon Frederick Banting, Prof John Macleod and medical student Charles Best began researching how to remove insulin from a dog’s pancreas. By November, they’d successfully treated a diabetic dog with their insulin extract. James Collip, a biochemist, joined the group to develop insulin safe enough to be tested in humans, this time from cattle pancreases. On January 11 1922, Leonard received the first insulin injection. His dangerously high blood sugar levels dropped, but he developed an abscess at the site of the injection and still had high levels of ketones. Collip further purified the extract and Leonard is given a second injection on the 23rd. This time it is a complete success. Banting and Macleod recieve the 1923 Nobel Prize and split their prize money with Best and Collip. Leonard (pictured) dies of pneumonia on April 10 1935 at age 26.

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2022-01-23T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-23T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://times-e-editions.pressreader.com/article/282415582664256

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