The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
INSULIN TO THE RESCUE
One hundred years ago, the first insulin injection was given to a diabetes patient — a 14-year-old boy in a Toronto hospital from an inability to absorb and utilize glucose, the metabolized end product of food. He weighed just 15 pounds and was near death. Within three months of starting regular insulin injections, the boy weighed 29 pounds. He’d go on to live another 13 years, thanks to insulin. By the 1920s, scientists had a pretty good idea that a lack of insulin, a secretion of the pancreas, caused what was then called juvenile-onset diabetes — we now call that Type 1 Diabetes. But they had difficulty finding a way to extract insulin from the pancreas without damaging the insulin. Canadian surgeon Frederick Banting, right, had the idea that if he could break down the pancreas in a way that left just the organ’s insulin-producing cells intact, he might have better results extracting that insulin. In November 1920, he teamed up with professor John Macleod at the University of Toronto, who provided laboratories and a research assistant — Charles Best, left — to experiment on dogs. It took only six months for Banting and Best to succeed in pulling insulin from a dog’s pancreas. That insulin was then given to dogs whose pancreases had been removed. Their blood sugar levels improved after those injections. In December 1921, biochemist James Collip joined the team, moving from dogs to cattle for insulin and perfecting a way to purify the insulin so it would be safe enough to test in humans. On Jan. 11, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson — who suffered from Type 1 diabetes — received the first injection. Within 24 hours, his dangerously high blood sugar level had dropped but he developed a sore where he had received the injection and still had high levels of ketones — chemicals produced by the liver that can be life-threatening — in his urine. Collip worked around the clock to purify the insulin extract even further. Thompson was given a second injection 12 days later. This time, his blood sugar levels became nearly normal and he had no other side effects. Diabetes was no longer a death sentence for patients. Neither Banting nor Macleod was interested in patenting their discovery, preferring insulin be used for the public good. As word spread of the good insulin can do, pharmaceutical companies appeared to be willing to file a patent on the team’s work. In order to keep that from happening, Banting, Macleod, Best and Collip patented their discovery and the process they used to extract and purify it and sold it for $1 to the University of Toronto. In October 1923, Banting and Macleod were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work in developing insulin. Banting split his half of the prize money with Best and Macleod split his half with Collip.