“A cure for diabetes could be imminent after scientists discovered how to make huge quantities of insulin-producing cells, in a breakthrough hailed as significant as antibiotics.”
This would be great news if it were true. Anyone think it is believable? (I am rather cynical about news of medical breakthroughs anymore–they seldom turn out to deliver on the hype).
I have so many relatives with diabetes. This would be so awesome.
It’s hopeful, but it hasn’t reached human trials yet.
One thing to recall is that type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease. So even if you could regrow those cells, they might get attacked again. Many a slip…
Speaking as someone with type I-like diabetes and NO autoimmunity, I’m following the news closely. Obviously there’s still a way to go, but I agree with the assessment that this is a major breakthrough.
This is a tremendous breakthrough. My wife and I wept at the news. Our son has had diabetes for 16 years.
This breakthrough depended on embryonic stem cells. I raise a hearty finger to those who undermined and interfered with such research along the way.
I hope I live long enough to see this come to fruition. Not diabetic myself, but have loved ones who are- and ones who were before they died of it.
Type 1 diabetic here.
I see headlines like these at least twice a year, with several mini-updates and mini-breakthroughs in between.
I still see no cure.
Whatever. I’ll believe it when my doc gives me a call to schedule the appointment for me to come in for The Cure.
And yeah, this. From what I’ve heard previously, they’ve been able to transplant working beta cells from a healthy patient to a T1 for a while now. But the body just destroys those the same way it destroyed the original ones.
I’m personally more excited about the work being done at Faustman Lab. They’re in human trials with an inexpensive generic drug that seems to be working pretty well at controlling the T cells that attack insulin-producing beta cells. Once those are in check, I’ve read many studies that indicate that beta cells will grow back on their own.
Maybe the ultimate solution will be some hybrid of the two studies. Who know? Like I said, I’m not holding my breath.
I haven’t seen the article in Cell, but I’d bet the authors don’t say that a “cure” is “imminent”. Once we get long-term productive function in humans, the hype will be justified.
Besides, medical advances aren’t truly a game-changer until they’re reported in the Daily Mail.
I think the same thing. “Could be…” '…imminent…" two weasel words in the same sentence bodes ill, IMHO.
It reminds me of Paul Harvey’s column which came out every two years saying that electrical cars would probably be coming out ‘in two years’.
Hope I’m wrong.
I’m wondering how they get their diabetic animals… do they take a healthy animal and stimulate its autoimmune system so that it destroys the insulin-producing cells? Do they go in and manually kill the cells? Do they breed a generation of animals that have no ability to produce insulin? I’ll hold off on my excitement until we see the results in human trials, and, like Athena, I’ll be waiting for the call from every doctor I’ve had since I got this phone number, saying “DO IT NOW.”
I know that when Banting and Best first figured out insulin, they would remove dog’s pancreases to produce diabetic dogs for experimentation. Given how I feel about my own dogs, it pains me to know they did that (and killed the dogs afterwards.) But I am happy for the insulin, obviously.
The Discover of Insulin is a pretty good read, and talks a lot about the techniques they used.
I’m not up on all of the latest research, but I know I read an article back in the late 90s where they were discussing the idea of implanting pig beta cells encased in porous plastic. The pores would be big enough to let through nutrients (keeping the cell alive), sugar (so they could sense the blood sugar), and insulin, but too small to allow antibodies through. The problem back then was getting enough good beta cells - grinding up pig pancreases and separating out the beta cells was just way too time-consuming and expensive.
Now, if this research pans out, they will have a ready source of beta cells. I don’t see offhand why they couldn’t combine the two approaches.
Unfortunately, the same headline turned up in 2007.
At least progress is being made. Type 1 Diabetes takes too many people, too young. I lost my intended to complications from diabetes.