Grant: Project Grant

The use of insulin pump therapy for the management of type 1 diabetes is continuously growing. However, a significant barrier to the use of insulin pumps is the short wear time of the insulin infusion sets (IIS) that are used to delivery the insulin from the pump into the skin via a cannula. Currently, IIS must be replaced at least every 3 days, due to increased risk of IIS failure. While there are many causes that lead to the failure of IIS, the local inflammatory response to the IIS cannula may play a significant role in impairing insulin delivery beyond 3 days. Our research aims to reduce the local inflammatory response to the IIS cannula by inhibiting the Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway. TLRs stimulate inflammation in response to danger signals released by injured tissue. We hypothesize that inhibiting TLRs signalling in response to the tissue injury caused by cannula insertion will reduce the local inflammatory response to the IIS cannula. This research has the potential to improve the wear time of IIS, which would significantly reduce the burden of T1D management by reducing the frequency of IIS failure and replacement.