NIH Confirms Protocol To Reverse Type 1 Diabetes 116
FiReaNGeL writes "In 2001, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital demonstrated the efficacy of a protocol to reverse type 1 diabetes in diabetic mice. New data from a study performed at the National Institutes of Health provides additional confirmation of the ability to reverse type 1 diabetes and on the role of spleen cells in islet regeneration. Spleen cells appear to contribute to islet recovery more in mice who are older and with more advanced diabetes compared with younger mice with less advanced diabetes, in which regeneration of remaining islets may be the dominant mechanism."
Hype or not? (Score:1, Interesting)
itll be years (Score:1)
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So. Who wants to breed with ManBearPig? Im kinda busy this weekend, so i really cant.
-Red
Re:itll be years (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:itll be years (Score:5, Informative)
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Fairly large? My infusion set has a catheter that's a quarter inch?
--Rob
Re:itll be years (Score:4, Insightful)
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You *must* watch your diet all the time or risk coma/death very quickly in the short term, or bad side effects (blindness, loss of limbs, organ failure) in the long term. Getting drunk can get a person in trouble fast, especially if vomitting occurs.
First time your friends see you get sugar low, you'll get looked on as a freak by many people. A sugar low means you'll lose thinking ability (you look dumb) and won't real
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Type 1 Diabetes is not fun to have, and it's not something to be shrugged off. I'm sure that some diabetics experience less problems than others, but it's not a disease to be shrugged off as if talking about a wart or a cold. My life is a bit more complex now than my pre-diabetic life; Every day I must constantly keep track of my insulin, food, and exercise, and t
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It's worse than that -- a well-intentioned person may actually give you a shot of insulin ("Hm, an unconscious diabetic, diabetics gives themselves shots all the time, I'd better give them a shot!"), which of course makes the problem 10 time
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Some twenty-odd years ago I was involved in doing the software for a university research lab. They were testing the effects that extremes of blood glucose levels had on mental acuity. The software we came up with would flash LEDs in various patterns (to prevent the subject from predicting them) and measured their response time. As I happened to be on-hand when they were first testing the system I got hooked up t
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I respectfully disagree. Having worked for an insulin pump manufacturer and having spoken with hundreds of doctors, patients, and educators, I can tell you that managing diabetes is fundamental
Being a Type 1 Diabetic, all I can say is... (Score:1)
I couldn't have said it better myself, and I *AM* a Type 1.
Spent the first 25 years of my life cycling daily, running, hiking, eating healthy foods & generally being as "healthy" as I knew how.
Suddenly I start to get sick, and the next thing I know, I've got "Adult Onset" (26yo) "Juvenile Diabetes" (insulin dependancy) which was found out after I woke up from a week long DKA coma.
With my BSL's in the 800+ range & pH at 6.72, another five minutes in traffic getting me to the hospital and th
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Insulin pumps can be pretty darned dangerous, too. Over 25% of diabetes related deaths are actually due to (accidental or intentional) insulin overdose. At least it's nice to know that people are working on the problem though.
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Back then it was needles and syringes much bigger and thicker than nowadays, and they had to be boiled before every use. If I needed a blood glucose check, I had to go to the hospital.
It was no picnic of course, and I had to be taken to hospital several times in the first years. Yes, the stress is great, and (especially with kids) I imagine it was a huge strain on my parents - I was too small to notice back then, of course. Ho
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Re:itll be years (Score:4, Funny)
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OK, look at it the other way. Just because you're prepared to die to test out a new treatment doesn't mean that I'm prepared to kill you with it. We usually have to be pretty darned sure that something won't be harmful before starting testing on humans.
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Who is this "we" you keep talking about?
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Many reasons. Probably the first and foremost are snake oil salesmen. Followed closely by the fact that while people will say they want a particular experimental treatment, what they really want is a cure. If what they end up getting is an experimental treatment that gives them cancer, makes their legs fall off, or just drains their bank account, they'll be suing the researches post haste.
As far as gross surgical procedures
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It will be never. I've been hearing shit like this for years about diabetes. "A cure is right around the corner." "Just a few more years." Same shit over and over.
Point being there is to much money is not curing diabetes than there is curing it. If they just develop a treatment they can keep people hooked on the drugs that keep them alive for a life time. Where if they cure it that is a one time income shot.
One fee for the cure vs a life time of treatment for 40 or 50 years.
Missing something? (Score:5, Insightful)
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The research in question is done by Faustman financed (at least partly) by the Iococca Foundation. ( http://www.iacoccafoundation.org/grants_diabetes_r esearch.html [iacoccafoundation.org] )
They're preparing for human trials of at least part of this protocol, but it seems
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My grandfather, who is a type-I diabetic (I'm a type-II myself), staunchly believes that there are cures for AIDS, cancer, diabetes, etc, but the pharmacies are making too much money on the
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Now, if you think that cancer has been cured in mice - sure, but that is old news. Cancer has probably been cured in mice a thousand times, but until we can start breeding and treating people like mice it will probably take a li
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Uhm... hello????
Everybody knows that the Apollo missions were faked!
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AIDS is a viral disease. So are many cancers -- more and more are being identified as such every year. No one has yet figured out a way to cure any viral disease; partly because of the very nature of the beast, it's a nastily difficult problem to solve. Even if the paranoid theory is correct about other diseases, I can't believe that anyone has solved the viral-disease hu
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As several have pointed out, the commercial entities most likely to benefit from from treating, rather than curing, are the pharmaceutical and, to a lesser degree, the food industries (diet foods). It is no surprise they are not interested in a cure, but the health insurance industry would benefit directly in
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What happens whenever a big-shot researcher moves from one university to another...the same thing!
No doubt that Pharma is generally more interested in treatments than cures, but I doubt there in some kind
may nytimes article on this (Score:2)
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It is a promising and comparatively cheap cure if it works the same way in people. There are about 10,000 things that could go wrong between here and there though.
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Look up "Complete Freund's Adjuvant" ... the stuff induces a massive immune inflammatory response, and is illegal to use in humans. The study has to be replicated, not ONCE, but several times, unt
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terst
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http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/580 3/1243b?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&f ulltext=Faustman&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec= date&resourcetype=HWCIT [sciencemag.org]
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/580 3/1243d?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&f ulltext=Faustman&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec= date&resou [sciencemag.org]
Re:Missing something? (Score:4, Informative)
There is no such thing as severe/end-stage type I diabetes. Usually by the time you are diagnosed, you are at the "severe/end stage" - Your pancreatic beta cells are gone or nearly so. Insulin can prolong your life for decades, and if your bloodsugars are carefully controlled (via aggressive and careful diet, insulin dosing, and glucose monitoring), you will live just as long a life as a normal person.
If you're talking about severe diabetes complications (Kidney damage, retina damage, etc.)- By the time those present themselves, the cumulative damage of years of abnormal bloodsugars is done and curing the underlying diabetes isn't going to help.
Last but not least, you clearly missed the "In the 2001 and 2003 studies, Faustman and colleagues treated end-stage nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice with Freund's complete adjuvant, a substance that suppresses the activity of the immune cells that destroy islets in type 1 diabetes." line. Immunosuppressants are scary shit, and usually considered an absolute last-resort treatment when the other choice is death. Admittedly, it sounds like this MIGHT be a rather targeted immunosuppressant with fewer side effects than most, but still, it's an immunosuppressant.
I've been a type I diabetic for over a decade and have been looking forward to a cure for years. While this article gave me a lot of hope, the mention of immunosuppressants took a lot of it away. There are already quite a few treatments for Type I diabetes that are proven to work, but generally are only given to those who are already on immunosuppressants for another reason. (For example, pancreas or pancreatic beta cell transplants are only given to patients already receiving another transplant who will be on antirejection drugs and immunosuppressants anyway.)
That said, it sounds like there are fewer side effects than other immunosuppressants, as I have heard that there are plans for human trials starting in 2007 or 2008. Six years from the first results in mice to the first human trials is actually quite quick. There are plenty of examples of cases where botched human trials nearly killed the test cases. (Remember that incident a year or two in London where 6-8 test patients basically swelled up like balloons and found that six months later most of them had trashed immune systems and the beginnings of cancer?) People are REALLY, REALLY careful with human trials.
It sounds like they are conducting one more large-scale study in mice before beginning human trials. They didn't have money for it before, but they received a large amount from one of Lee Iacocca's charities to fund further studies.
Given the involvement of immunosuppressants, I hope they are extra careful with human trials. I can wait another decade if it means I won't be developing cancer or a few years after treatment.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freund's_adjuvant [wikipedia.org] - One of the core aspects of this treatment. Note that it appears to be a REALLY nasty drug with a lot of side effects, and is in fact currently forbidden for use in humans. (So I have no clue how they are using it in a human trial...)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Faustman [wikipedia.org] - There's a lot of co
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The issue is whether the risks of the treatment outweigh the benefits of partial/complete reversal.
My opinion
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"They also introduced donor spleen cells to retrain the immune system not to attack islets and found that the protocol not only halted the immune destruction caused by diabetes but also allowed the insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells to regenerate."
I would take this as a suggestion that the immune system suppression is temporary, or maybe reduced later. If the immune system can be retrained, why keep taking the drugs, yes?
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As for the possible treatment: I'm not advocating "rushing" into human trials (though early tr
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Because of the nature of type I diabetes, the only way to cure it is *some* form of immunosuppression. The ideal solution would be to specifically suppress the T cells which are responsible for destroying islet cells. This in itself is t
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Also, some very early experiments in humans have been done in Israel, using a less-toxic immune-suppressive (which doesn't suppress as much). No success, but there may be some data from it that it was heading in the right direction (see SciAm article).
This
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First you test it in vitro, in a test tube.
Then you test it in animals, starting with mice, and eventually working your way up to dogs, pigs, monkeys, etc.
Then you test it in a few HEALTHY human volunteers, looking for possible side effects.
Then you tes
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Then you test it in sick people, to see if it actually works on humans.
In some cases healthy people may not be tested first- they may try especially risky procedures only on people who very likely to die if left untreated.
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tunc of semen vires educo ----what our legal counsel reminds us of (machine translated please correct if you are a native Latin speaker)
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This is only a small nit-pick, but the initial human testing is much more likely to be done on the "good" Type 1 diabetics than on the severe/end-stage groups. Their reaction to the treatment will be clearer and the treatment can be evaluated within tamer limits.
For example, if you were inventing a parachute, you wouldn't do the first
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If you're paranoid and nasty, you might also look at the influence of companies like Eli Lilly
Oblig /. (Score:2, Funny)
You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Although type II diabetes is by far more prevalent than type I. Still an effective cure would be a major breakthrough for these people.
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I did that. For some reason these damned mice just won't sit still when I plug them into the USB slots. I have to use duct tape to hold their tails in place. And I have been bitten about 30 times. I think I'll give up and go back to my trackball, they're just not worth the effort.
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http://www.i-duck.co.uk/ [i-duck.co.uk]
Type I, not Type II (Score:5, Informative)
Type I diabetes [wikipedia.org] comes from an autoimmune reaction against the insulin-producing cells. It is more common in children, and accounts for about 10% of all insulin cases.
Type II diabetes [wikipedia.org] tends to be caused by an insulin insensitivity - the insulin receptor in cells looses its effectiveness. The complications from Type II diabetes tend to be worse, and none of them are pleasant. There are many risk factors for Type II diabetes, some of which a person can't do anything about (i.e., genetic predisposition), but the primary risk factor is obesity and inactivity. So, for the foreseeable future, doctors will no doubt continue to caution people to be vigilant about their weight and, for those under treatment for diabetes, to still be especially vigilant about monitoring their blood sugar levels.
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from your link
'Type 2 diabetes may go unnoticed for years in a patient before diagnosis, since the symptoms are typically milder (e.g. lack of ketoacidotic episodes) and can be sporadic. However, severe complications can result from unnoticed type 2 diabetes, including renal failure, vascular disease (including coronary artery disease), vision damage, etc.'
Currently, type 1 d
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Type 2 diabetes deteriorates if not kept well-controlled. In advanced stages, the hyperglycemia oxidizes proteins and kills off pancreatic islets, until the pancreas is unable to produce insulin, just as in Type 1.
So if an advanced type-2 diabetic fixed up their insulin resistance, they might still be unable to produce insulin. And the therapy in the article might then be helpful to them too!
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You are right on the result (pancreas no longer able to produce insulin), but your mechanism (oxidative stress) is at best only part of the picture. If oxidized proteins induced by hyperglycemia were cytotoxic, a lot more cell types in addition to pancreatic islets would be killed off.
The exact mechanism of beta cell burn out in advanced type II diabetes is unclea
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Point is still that the pancreas needs new islets, which this therapy may be able to provide. Meaning that advanced type-2's might find this therapy useful just as type-1's do.
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Still, it's a start... (Score:2)
as the Type II patients.
2) Fixing this one would be amazing- it was thought that generally Type I was treatable only with Insulin injections. To be "cured" would be amazing for them.
3) Some of the meds for Type II Diabetes can QUICKLY and VIOLENTLY turn you into a Type I Diabetic if you get exposed to certain other substances. The Avandia type meds and Glyburide type meds that aff
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Please stay away from Splenda which is basically just chlorinated sugar (I don't want to let any more chlorine into my body if possible) as well as all of the other artificial sweeteners like Nutrasweet, etc. They are NOT natural substances and instead are just man made chemicals, can be dangerous, an
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Please stay away from Splenda which is basically just chlorinated sugar (I don't want to let any more chlorine into my body if possible) as well as all of the other artificial sweeteners like Nutrasweet, etc. They are NOT natural substances and instead are just man made chemicals, can be dangerous, and there are natural alternatives that are proven to be safe.
Watch out, a lot of products feature chlorinated sodium, as well.
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Chlorinated sugar on the other hand is only about 30 years old and NO long term studies have been done (and in total only THIRTY SIX humans were ever tested and the longest study was FOUR DAYS) while many of the studies that have been done show that pretty bad things can happen such as: "Sucralose (Splenda) may result shrunken th
Heh... Don't get me started... (Score:2)
occurring sugar alcohols and sweeten nicely, they have a nasty side effect of causing laxative effects past a
certain level of consumption. So, they don't use it as a sweetener at restaurants, in sodas, etc. The only
places I've seen these useful sweeteners is in gums and candies- and not all that often (Seems Aspartame's
VERY popular compared to the alternatives, even though it doesn't taste as good be
No, type 1 and type 2. (Score:2)
More Elegant Approach (Score:1)
Not as simple (Score:2, Informative)
The controversy is over the role of stem cells. No one disputes that adding Freund's adjuvant to the NOD mice can cure their diabetes, and it seems to work through a hazily-understood modulation of the immune system. That has been established for 15 years.
Diabetes (Score:1)
Argh! (Score:1)
Is this the EDMONTON (Canada) PROTOCOL? (Score:2)
and there have been human trials in subsequent years, in Canada, USA & Sweden,
among other places on the planet.
One problems was that folks who'd undergone the procedure had to take drug to
inhibit their immune systems, ie, to reduce the risk of rejection of the islets.
Nevertheless, some found that acceptable (presumably such drugs could be taken
orally, rather than intravenously).
Any, if I've got the name of the protocol r
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In 2001 one researcher managed to come up with a repair in mice and published. Then other scientists couldn't repeat the findings. Now a few years later we have scientists who can repeat the findings. Sounds like it is progressing very well and at a pace that you would expe
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Which other scientists (just curious)? What's suspicious about all this is that JRDF, which will throw money at everything from new implantable device research to stem cell research won't fund [jillstanek.com] research into Denise Faustman's legitimate breakthrough discovery [massgeneral.org]. Could it be because her discovery involve a cheap drug whose patent has expired? [washtimes.com]
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Didn't Faustman do the work in this and the original studies? It seem odd that nobody else has tried to reproduce such promising research.
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Did you ever consider that there are cases with some disease processes where people might be very pleased to consider becoming a "guinea pig"?
Not everyone thinks the government should be their mommy. If you need a mommy, then by all means, have some old lady adopt you. For those adults capable of making informed decisions for themselves, why not stay the heck out of their lives? I know, it is just such a radical idea, but even so... adults, making decisions about their own bodies, for themselves... it a
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The fact that there are risks and unknowns do not in any way reduce your ability to make an informed choice. An intelligent adult understands that there are risks and unknowns. You can't be protected from everything, including people who might not care about your particular situation or outcome.
None of that serves as "good reason" to take the right to choose from adults.
As for your outlook on drug companies, fine, whatever. You're entitled to your outlook. That still doesn't give you the right to tel
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No. It isn't. Risks and unknowns become a problem only when you are thinking they don't exist. If you can see enough of a problem to evaluate it in your own life, then you should be free to do so. Problems and solutions are not evaluated on unknowns, they are evaluated on knowns. For instance, when you take an aspirin, there is an unknown chance that you will exhibit a side effect. You assume it is small (because the odds are small) but that may not be th
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[stares hard at Jim, begins to count... 0... moves to next citizen... 1...]
Law for the least common denominator is not a solution. It is a problem.
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