A huge breakthrough was announced this weekend at my workplace, The University of Minnesota. In a nutshell, they have eradicated diabetes in monkeys here. There is no obvious reason why the treatment they used won’t work in humans as well. Human tests are expected to start in three years. There is no assurance all will go well, of course, but it is quite reasonable to be optimistic about this.
Since I watched my dad suffer with diabetes as long as I knew him (it played a big role in his death too), I am just thrilled that there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel! If only this could have happened decades ago.
Also, boo to the media which largely ignored this story.
This is good news. I ignored the story, even though it cam from my alma matter, because I’ve seen that most of the diabetes research that gets reported is for Type II Diabetes.
While the story didn’t specifially address it, the treatment could probably be used for both Type I and Type II diabetes. I have Type Is in my family (not me), so this is very good news!
There’s a group up in Edmonton, Alberta who have been doing human islet cell transplants for 2-3 years now. The success rate has been pretty good, however –
Even with presumptive organ donation, there are not enough suitable pancreases to supply enough islet cells to cure all diabetics. Not to mention the difficult process of separating out the islet cells and managing rejection. Since many common anti-rejection drugs are toxic to islet cells, you can imagine this is no trivial thing.
In other words, this is not a breakthrough, it’s a duplication of a breakthrough, which is still not perfected and has serious road blocks to universal implementation.
The article talked about pig islet transplantation into monkeys. Assuming that the ultimate goal of that line of research is the implantation of pig islet cells into humans, there’ll be no shortage of donors.
Well, that is good news. It remains to be seen whether it will be successful for humans, but still, it is another step.
I found the opening paragraph to reflect a misunderstanding of the nature of the concerns of diabetics. In the big picture, I know that my primary concern is not that my son has to have injections. It is the risk of serious secondary conditions despite the regimen of daily injections that keeps me awake at night.
Pretty cool. Thanks for sharing it with us. Dad had Diabetes, Gram did, Mom does and all that means that I at the very least have a higher risk factor than others.
Thanks for sharing the article!
My mom is T1 and I’ve just been diagnosed as T2 last month. So, I’m hoping for a cure in my lifetime! Only time will tell…
It’s nice to see that there is progress being made. My father went through hell in his final 10 years of life thanks to the complications of diabetes (including amputations, which I think was the most traumatic part of all for him).
I wish that he had a chance to benefit from this progress. Still, it is comforting to know that if I end up developing diabetes too later on down the road there is reason for hope.
My dad was a Type II diabetic, and it seems that heredity is a much larger factor in Type II diabetes than it is with Type I.