Chemical Pancreatectomy Using Ethanol Infusion

Chronic pancreatitis affects nearly 200,000 people in the US. These patients suffer severe and intractable pain, often requiring medicating with opioids to manage, and are at a greatly increased risk of pancreatic cancer. They all eventually develop diabetes. The most reliable way to treat pancreatitis is surgical removal, but this approach is highly invasive, has a high morbidity rate, and actually increases the risk of diabetes. We have devised a minimally invasive chemical method that removes the problematic pancreatic tissue without compromising the crucial insulin-producing aspects of the gland.

Description

By one theory of chronic pancreatitis, the exocrine pancreas, which produces digestive enzymes, creates a toxic environment that then kills off the otherwise healthy insulin-producing islets of the endocrine pancreas. We discovered that infusing 1-2% acetic acid into the pancreatic duct of a mouse leads to complete destruction of the problematic exocrine pancreas while leaving the endocrine pancreas intact. In a model of chronic pancreatitis, infusion of acetic acid halted pancreatic islet destruction and improved insulin production. As opposed to a traditional pancreatectomy, our method can be performed endoscopically for minimal invasiveness. Also, because this method spares the hormonal functions of the pancreas, it treats the painful and carcinogenic aspects of pancreatitis while also reducing patients’ risk of developing diabetes.

Applications

· Treating chronic pancreatitis

Advantages

· Minimally invasive
· Eliminates cancer risk
· Alleviates pain
· Reduces risk of diabetes

Invention Readiness

In vivo mouse data, in situ primate surgical protocol

IP Status

https://patents.google.com/patent/US11071550B2

Related Publication(s)

Saleh, M., Sharma, K., Kalsi, R., Fusco, J., Sehrawat, A., Saloman, J. L., Guo, P., Zhang, T., Mohamed, N., Wang, Y., Prasadan, K., & Gittes, G. K. (2021). Chemical pancreatectomy treats chronic pancreatitis while preserving endocrine function in preclinical models. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 131(3). https://doi.org/10.1172/jci143301