News Highlights
- Lilly and ICAN begin research to probe changes in human sweat, detectable by dogs, that signals low sugar in people with T1 #diabetes
- Lilly supports a volunteer program where employees help reinforce the skills of assistance dogs to help people with #diabetes
A young black Lab named Pete sleeps at the feet of Dr. Dana Hardin, medical director and pediatric endocrinologist, at Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) campus in Indianapolis. Though he looks at home, Pete is not Hardin's pet. He's an assistance dog in training, one of several at Lilly being socialized in real-life situations by employee volunteers under the guidance of the Indiana Canine Assistance Network (ICAN). Through ICAN (www.ICANdog.org), Pete is learning to detect hypoglycemia, a dangerously low level of blood glucose (sugar), in people with diabetes.
As a hypoglycemia alert dog, Pete is also part of research Lilly began in June to better understand why dogs are able to sense severe blood sugar events in their owners and to identify the compound or compounds they smell as part of those events.
Hypoglycemia Alert Dogs – A Furry Blood Sugar Testing Back-up System
For years, people with vision and hearing impairments, as well as other disabilities, have benefited from the help and companionship of trained assistance dogs. Only recently, however, have hypoglycemia alert dogs been available to help people with diabetes, typically those with type 1, which is usually diagnosed in children or young adults. These dogs are trained to identify low levels of blood sugar and alert their owners by nudging or making contact with them in some specific way.
This training and application is important for many living with type 1 diabetes, as over time (approximately five years), people can develop "hypoglycemia unawareness," in which the body loses the ability to sense an impending low blood sugar event.[i] This type of event is usually characterized by tremors, sweating, confusion and irritability, feelings that would normally cause someone with diabetes to check their blood sugar. If left unchecked for too long, dangerously low levels of blood sugar can cause seizures, loss of consciousness and in some cases, death.
"When people who have had diabetes for a number of years lose their ability to sense an oncoming low blood sugar event, the consequences can be severe," said Dr. Hardin. "Considering children under the age of 15 are at greatest risk for developing type 1 diabetes, this 'unawareness' is happening in children who are very young. For a caregiver, this is a constant, everyday fear that doesn't go away."
Currently, it is unclear how the dogs are able to sense hypoglycemia in humans, but some think the dogs are reacting to scents created by chemical changes related to low blood sugar.
The Nose Knows – New Research to Uncover Subtle Changes in Human Chemistry
The ability to smell is based on the number of olfactory cells adapted to receive smell molecules – the more olfactory cells there are, the more acute the sense of smell.[ii] Compared to humans, who have approximately five million olfactory cells, dogs may possess up to 220 million.[iii] That means, depending on the compound being detected, a dog's nose may actually be more than 1,000 times more sensitive than humans.[iv]
For someone with diabetes, the sensitivity of a trained dog's nose can mean peace of mind, especially during the overnight hours, and at its extreme, can be life saving. Lilly Diabetes recently examined this remarkable sense of smell and presented corresponding data at the American Diabetes Association's 72nd (the Association) Scientific Sessions.
The study examined the frequency and severity of hypoglycemic events as well as the emotional response in one person with severe hypoglycemia in the two weeks prior to receiving a trained dog and in the six weeks post-dog placement.[v] Data showed a clear correlation between the number of alerts the dog gave and the number of hypoglycemic states that were detected and thus prevented over the duration of the study.[vi] Ultimately, the dog accurately detected the onset of hypoglycemia and alerted the subject so steps could be taken to restore normal blood sugar levels.[vii]
"We understand some of the biochemical changes which occur with hypoglycemia, but we do not yet have a full picture of the timing of these changes, nor do we understand what exactly the dog is sensing," said Hardin. "The scent seems to be very specific, in fact, dogs are trained to their owner's individual scent. So if we can identify what the dogs smell, it may be possible to expose them to larger quantities of that compound for faster, more efficient training. But, what's exciting still is how that may apply to finding a practical treatment solution for people with diabetes. That's at the heart of everything we do."
Earlier this month, as a result of a Lilly supported Innovation Day for Global Statistical Sciences, ICAN and Lilly employees launched another study to examine the reproducibility of hypoglycemia recognition with a newly trained group of dogs. The goal of the study is to show reproducibility of the dogs' ability to recognize hypoglycemia from multiple samples in a laboratory setting. This is the first step to validate this mode of hypoglycemia therapy. Studies are also planned to determine what the dogs sense and to measure the dogs' impact on patients as they are placed using Lilly's proprietary measurement questionnaire.
PR Newswire