Doctors at UI Health performed the first islet transplant with Lantidra, the only therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat brittle type 1 diabetes. A 69-year-old man from Illinois received the therapy on Aug. 26 and subsequently was able to stop taking daily, life-saving insulin injections. Lantidra became available exclusively at UI Health last November.
Pancreatic islet cell therapy is a treatment approved by the FDA only for adults with type 1 diabetes who struggle to control their blood sugar due to frequent episodes of severe low blood sugar and hypoglycemia unawareness, or being unable to detect that blood sugar is dropping. Lantidra is derived from a deceased donor pancreas. To regulate blood glucose, the drug is infused into the patient's liver where insulin is produced. Lantidra requires a donor match determined by the United Network for Organ Sharing.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease that requires lifelong care. Patients with type 1 diabetes need multiple daily insulin injections or an insulin pump because their own immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. Even with insulin, they can develop life-threatening complications, including damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, nerves and kidneys. The cause of type 1 diabetes is unknown.
This is the first time in the United States that an islet transplant was no longer experimental, rather an FDA-approved medical procedure. I'm proud of the research that was done here at the University of Illinois Chicago to develop Lantidra with our doctors and our faculty."
Dr. Enrico Benedetti, head of surgery at UI Health
A week after the transplant, the patient, Edward "Ed" Augustin III, of Libertyville, Illinois, was able to stop taking daily, life-saving insulin injections.
"The advantage of islet transplant is that there is no age limit. We would never dream of doing a pancreas transplant on someone Ed's age, as the risks are too great," Benedetti said. "With Lantidra, there are no surgical risks, and instead of being in the hospital for up to 12 days following an organ transplant, he was home within 24 hours."
Augustin called the procedure "life-changing."
"I can be normal. This is huge. I'm going from shots and reactions to no shots and no reactions. This is just huge for me," he said.
Augustin was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 5 years old, and he regularly experienced severe low blood sugar and hypoglycemia unawareness. In one instance, Augustin recalled, he accidentally walked into a parked ambulance. When paramedics checked his blood sugar, it was at a dangerously low 10.
"When my blood sugar drops, it's like I'm inebriated. I don't remember anything," Augustin added.
This is the third time Augustin has received an islet cell transplant. His first two procedures, in 2011, allowed him to live without insulin injections for 12 years. He relapsed in 2023 and once again required insulin injections daily to manage his diabetes.
Dr. Lorenzo Gallon, medical director of UI Health's abdominal organ transplant program and director of transplant research and the transplant research laboratory, said the islet transplants have preserved Augustin's health.
"Pancreatic islet cell therapy not only helps treat hypoglycemic unawareness but may also help prevent kidney damage caused by diabetes if used early, before complications like diabetic nephropathy develop," he said.
According to the National Institutes of Health, more than 1.4 million people in the United States have type 1 diabetes. Roughly 80,000 people have brittle type 1 diabetes, a more severe form of type 1 diabetes. The disease can lead to blindness, kidney failure, limb amputation, stroke and heart attack.
UI Health partners with individual patients' health insurance to obtain coverage for Lantidra.
Lantidra was developed through research at the University of Illinois Chicago conducted by Dr. José Oberholzer. The clinical trials that supported Lantidra were conducted at UI Health, UIC's academic health enterprise. The clinical data was licensed to CellTrans Inc., which Oberholzer founded and serves as the company's president, to develop the therapy for FDA approval.
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