by: Darrell Greene Updated: May 17, 2017 - 10:40 PM

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Diabetes is attacking younger Americans more often than ever before.

According to new research released by the New England Journal of Medicine, cases of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes rose dramatically between 2002 and 2012.

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Those new diagnoses crossed all racial boundaries in young people through age 20.

While a cure is still distant on the horizon according to researchers, new treatments are helping diabetics live longer and better lives.

Emily Fonville is your average 15-year-old learning to drive, playing high school sports, and of course dressing up for the prom.

What you can't see in her pictures, is her daily fight against type 1 diabetes.

"It's like the hidden disease," Emily said.

But that fight is becoming more and more winnable.

Just three weeks ago, Emily became the first person in the Mid-South and one of the first in the nation to begin wearing the artificial pancreas.

It's true name, Medtronic is the hybrid closed loop system.

It's comprised of an insulin pump which attaches to the patient's skin, and a sensor which monitors in real time the patient's blood sugar.

The sensor sends those readings to the pump and when the patient's blood sugar is high, the pump gives the patient a precisely measured dose of insulin.

If the patient's blood sugar is too low, it has the ability to suspend delivery of insulin automatically.

"It is a game changer," Emily exclaimed when asked about the new tool.

Dr. Kashif Latif is Emily's doctor. He's one of the leading endocrinologists in the nation.

"There's a lot of technology going on, but this breakthrough has been the best thing ever for people with type 1 diabetes," said Latif who operates the first insulin pump center in nation out of his practice in Bartlett.

And while he admits this is not a cure, he said it's the next best thing to come along to date.

"It kind of matches what our body or our pancreas does for us. It's a more physiologic delivery of insulin for high glucose or low glucose," said Latif.

That means a lot less worry about diabetes for Emily.

"I think it is life changing. Being on this pump I feel like a normal person. I don't have to pull out a shot and give it in the middle of a restaurant.

I can just look down, press a button, and it's done."

FOX13 spoke to representatives of Medtronic who said the company was somewhat taken off guard.

They applied to the FDA for approval of the system in 2015, understanding that the approval process can take years.

But the human trials of the system went so well, the hybrid closed loop system was approved late last year.

Medtronic is making the systems as quickly as they can to fill the need.

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Artificial pancreas helping people with diabetes - FOX13 Memphis

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DAVIS COUNTY, Utah -- The growth rate of Type 1 diabetes among Utah students in grades K-12 is rapid.

The Utah Health Department said the most recent data shows in the 2015 to 2016 school year, there were 2,000 Type 1 diabetic students statewide.

The Davis County School District recognized the rapid increase in newly diagnosed students more than five years ago, and at that time they developed a Diabetes Education Program.

They collaborated with The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the American Diabetes Association, and the Primary Childrens Hospital diabetes clinic to develop their program.

We've had 56 graduates in this program the past five years, said Adam King, one of the program coordinators. Our number of diabetics has gone up exponentially over the years. There are new ones being diagnosed every day. We had three new ones diagnosed this week."

King said the program provides a valuable service, especially to children who may feel afraid after a diagnosis.

"And being able to have this program helps parents, helps educators, helps students have some confidence because its scary to be diagnosed with diabetes; it's life-threatening," he said. "When they are so young it can cause a lot of fear and apprehension.

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease and means the pancreas organ has stopped doing its job, which is to produce insulin to break down the food youre eating and turn it into nutrients and energy for your body to use. If the disease is not controlled, it can cause major complications and even become deadly.

When a student is more worried about being able to survive day-to-day, whether they are hungry, whether their blood sugar is going to be up or down, how it's impacting them, they don't have the brain power to think about learning their math or their science or English, King said. A program like this takes all the students as they come, with disabilities, with diabetes, and gives them a safe, appropriate education.

The program is catered to individual diabetics. Some students are older or have a better grasp of their condition early on.

Diabetes can be diagnosed at any age. The program is step-based and starts with the essentials, then progresses to counting carbohydrates and calculating how many insulin units a diabetic would need to inject or dial on their insulin pump.

It starts with basics such as washing hands or starting to recognize how they're feeling, and it develops up through five levels of getting to the point where they are counting their own carbs, doing their own blood sugar checks, and giving their own insulin doses," King said. "At the end they have a one-month trial where they are doing things without having a [Teacher's Assistant] standing there giving that support.

Recently at Knowlton Elementary School, 8-year-old Emerie Gelter, graduated from the program earlier than most diabetic students her age. Emerie is still in second grade.

We are very proud of Emerie, said King as he handed her a certificate of graduation from the program. She has gone through a lot of stuff. She has great family support, but she also does a good job with advocating for herself. She is very precocious. She is very excited and that helps her being a self-advocate.

The program is critical for most diabetic students because they learn to take care of themselves at school as they move on to higher levels of learning.

A lot of times we have students who focus on safety so much that they learn a helplessness to where they expect someone to do everything for them, King said. And while we want them to be safe, we also want them to develop those skills.

The Davis County School District is aware other districts do not use the same diabetes program and have talked with parents who have diabetic children who attend other districts. Those parents have seen what Davis is doing and are encouraged by the results.

Davis County would like to see all Utah schools implement a Diabetes Education Program similar to this one.

I don't know why it's not at other schools; this is something we developed on our own about five years ago because we recognized that while we were trying to achieve our goal with the students self-managing, there wasn't a good way to show their progress," King said."This isn't a one-size fits-all program; this is something that we take standardization and framework and cater to what a student needs and the pace they want to move at.

If you want to explore the program at Davis County School District, click here.

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Young Utahn recognized for early graduation from Diabetes Education Program - fox13now.com

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Improving drugs for type 2 diabetes Science Daily Type 2 diabetes, a prolific killer, is on a steep ascent. According to the World Health Organization, the incidence of the condition has grown dramatically from 108 million cases in 1980 to well over 400 million today. The complex disease occurs when ... and more »

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Improving drugs for type 2 diabetes - Science Daily

Insulin prices are only getting more painful.

At least two drugmakers have boosted insulin list prices recently by about 8 percent, adding to concerns that treating diabetes is unaffordable for some patients. The average price of insulin almost tripled between 2002 and 2013, according to the American Diabetes Association. Even before the most recent price hike, some diabetics were cutting back or even going without the drug because of its expense.

The price hikes come at a sensitive time for the drugmakers as Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and rival Sanofi-Aventis are facing a class-action lawsuit alleging they conspired to raise their prices in lockstep. Almost one in 10 Americans has diabetes, a group of conditions where the body fails to properly regulate blood sugar. People with Type 1 diabetes, often referred to as juvenile diabetes, need to take insulin daily to stay alive.

"We were really disappointed in this announcement," said Dr. William Cefalu, the chief scientific, medical and mission officer for the ADA, who noted that his organization has partnerships for research with the drugmakers. "This is really going in the wrong direction."

Allison Bailey, a studenet at Iowa State University, has diabetes and volunteers with a diabetes advocacy group. She called the most recent price hike "a slap in the face."

Such price hikes may be absorbed by diabetics' insurance plans, but other people may struggle if they lack insurance or have high-deductible plans.

That's causing plenty of financial pain for patients and their families. About half of diabetics say they regularly miss a dose of insulin.

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Rising insulin prices causing pain for people with diabetes - STLtoday.com

May 18, 2017 by Robyn Mills Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Research led by the University of Adelaide is paving the way for safer and more effective drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, reducing side effects and the need for insulin injections.

Two studies, published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and BBA-General Subjects, have shown for the first time how new potential anti-diabetic drugs interact with their target in the body at the molecular level.

These new potential drugs have a completely different action than the most commonly prescribed anti-diabetic, Metformin, which acts on the liver to reduce glucose production, and are potentially more efficient at reducing blood sugar. They target a protein receptor known as PPARgamma found in fat tissue throughout the body, either fully or partially activating it in order to lower blood sugar by increasing sensitivity to insulin and changing the metabolism of fat and sugar.

"Type two diabetes is characterised by resistance to insulin with subsequent high blood sugar which leads to serious disease. It is usually associated with poor lifestyle factors such as diet and lack of exercise," says lead researcher Dr John Bruning, with the University's School of Biological Sciences and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing.

"Prevalence of type 2 diabetes in Australia alone has more than tripled since 1990, with an estimated cost of $6 billion a year. The development of safe and more efficient therapeutics is therefore becoming increasingly important.

"People with severe diabetes need to take insulin but having to inject this can be problematic, and it's difficult to get insulin levels just right. It's highly desirable for people to come off insulin injections and instead use oral therapeutics."

The first study, in collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute in Florida, US, describes an honours research project by Rebecca Frkic, where 14 different versions of a drug which partially activates PPARgamma were produced. Partial activation can have the benefit of fewer side-effects than full activation.

The original drug, INT131, is currently being tested in clinical trials in the US but some of the versions produced at the University of Adelaide have increased potency compared to the original, with the potential to further improve the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

"A major finding of this study was being able to show which regions of the drug are most important for interacting with the PPARgamma receptor," says Dr Bruning. "This means we now have the information to design modified drugs which will work even more efficiently."

The second study, in collaboration with Flinders University, used X-ray crystallography to demonstrate for the first time exactly how a potential new drug, rivoglitazone, binds with the PPARgamma receptor. Rivoglitazone fully activates PPARgamma but has less side effects than others with this mode of action.

"Showing how this compound interacts with its target is a key step towards being able to design new therapeutics with higher efficiencies and less side-effects," says lead author Dr Rajapaksha, from Flinders University School of Medicine (now at La Trobe University). "Lack of structural information was hampering determination of the precise mechanisms involved."

Explore further: Researchers investigating ways to improve type 2 diabetes treatments

More information: Harinda Rajapaksha et al. X-ray Crystal Structure of Rivoglitazone bound to PPAR and PPAR Subtype Selectivity of TZDs, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.bbagen.2017.05.008

Rebecca L Frkic et al. Structure-Activity Relationship of 2,4-dichloro-N-(3,5-dichloro-4-(quinolin-3-yloxy)phenyl)benzenesulfonamide (INT131) Analogs for PPAR-Targeted Antidiabetics, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6b01727

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Research led by the University of Adelaide is paving the way for safer and more effective drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, reducing side effects and the need for insulin injections.

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Designing better drugs to treat type 2 diabetes - Medical Xpress

The FDA has approved a new drug that could reverse the effects of diabetic macular edema, which is what causes blindness in people with diabetes.

Jeremy Baker, KENS 1:34 PM. CDT May 17, 2017

A new medication could help reverse diabetes vision loss. (Photo: KENS)

Diabetes is reportedly the number one cause of blindness in the United States. Until recently, there was no way to reverse it. However, a fairly new drug recently approved by the FDA is changing that.

"It was one of those things that's hard to believe," said Sonny Groves, a portrait photographer. He found out he had diabetes 20 years ago. "As the disease progressed, I had problems like neuropathy in the hands and feet, that sort of thing," Groves said.

His vision also started to go. That's when he was referred to the Medical Center Ophthalmology Associates.

"Better control of your blood sugar will give us better control of the back of your eye," said Dr. Michael Singer as he examined Groves' vision. Singer is the director of clinical trials at MCOA.

"Dr. Singer was the first one to notice I had any problems because he noticed tiny bleeders in my retina," Groves said.

"When tissues are deprived of oxygen, they scream for help. They send out a signal called VEGF," said Singer.

The VEGF sends new blood vessels to help the tissues, but that's not a good thing.

"Instead of being helpful, they are actually harmful. They cause swelling in the central part of your vision," Singer said.

In comes a drug called Lucentis.

"This is the first time the FDA has approved a drug like this to reverse the disease," Singer said. The usage is for diabetic retinopathy in patients either with or without diabetic macular edema. This latest approval broadens the diabetic retinopathy indication to include patients both with and without diabetic macular edema.

That disease is called diabetic macular edema. Lucentis is a shot given in the white of the eye after it is numbed. The typical Lucentis dose for diabetic retinopathy is 0.3 mg, which is slightly lower than the 0.5 mg dose used for other eye diseases.

"The process takes literally about two seconds and the results can be seen as early as three days," Singer said.

Groves said the results were amazing.

"When I started taking the Lucentis, it got better. The swelling that causes all of that stopped," Groves said.

"They go from a situation where they are not seeing as well to actually improving their vision and increasing activities they are able to do in their daily life," Singer said.

Now, thanks to Lucentis, Groves said he doesn't have to stop being a photographer.

Some of the side effects of Lucentis could be eye irritation, eye pain, dry eyes or some potentially serious side effects.

Uncommon side effects could reportedly include changes in vision and eye infections.

2017 KENS-TV

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'Breakthrough' drug could reverse vision loss caused by diabetes ... - KENS 5 TV