2 cancer drugs prevent and reverse Type 1 diabetes in mice

[Rach79]

Could this be the start of a possible cure for Type 1 diabetics :?: :!:

It is saying about the two drugs being administered and actually reversing the autoimmune response the immune system gives to destroy the beta cells.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 092250.htm

 

[sugarless sue]

Now,I'm a bit sketchy on type 1 but wouldn't this mean injecting small children with a powerful drug just in case they develop type 1!??

Because type 1 diabetes is caused by an autoimmune response that destroys insulin-secreting cells in the pancreas, the scientists sought to determine if one or more of the tyrosine kinases blocked by the two cancer drugs might also be responsible for the destructive inflammation in the pancreas. If so, the drugs might be promising candidates to treat diabetes.

Using a well-established mouse model for diabetes, known as the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse, they found that treating mice with imatinib or sunitinib before the onset of autoimmune diabetes prevented the development of the disease. Findings showed that the drugs’ benefits lasted well after the seven-week treatment. Studies with mice that already had diabetes showed that imatinib put the disease into permanent remission in 80 percent of the mice after only eight to 10 weeks of treatment.

 

[Rach79]

I might have misunderstood it. I think it means determing which tyrosine kinases are blocked with diabetics and administering the drugs to unblock them. I don't think it means injecting these drugs into anyone I don't think. I would presume some sort of symptoms would have to occur and then they would determine if they are likely to develop Type 1 diabetes or reverse it (possibly before all the insulin producing cells were all destroyed). It could be that they could re programme the immune system to not destroy these cells (which can re-grow) and teach it to accept them and possibly eventually insulin production would re-occur with a newly trained immune system.

 

[sugarless sue]

That would make more sense,Rach.I can't see many parents willing to put their kids through that ,'just in case'.

 

[Rach79]

No and if these scientists find the actual cells that are being blocked due to autoimmune response and these two drugs can unblock them it would mean the immune system could be programmed to work again and allow the body to produce insulin again without any further problems.

That is how I understand it anyway. I think it would be brilliant and better than winning 100 million pounds!! I gave up hope of a reversal of Type 1 but this seems like the most likely cure if they research it further and can master which cells need to be unblocked.

The only thing is just on the off hand this was cured next month or even tomorrow - I would hope the diabetic community on this forum wouldn't ebb away and somehow we could all still be members - maybe of the "cured diabetes forum".

 

[Dennis]

Hi Rach,

The research does look very promising, but I have just looked up the 2 drugs that were researched and one costs $32,000 per course of treatment, and the other is simply described as "one of the most expensive drugs currently manufactured". Even if they were 100% guaranteed to reverse type-1 diabetes, in view of the number of type-1s in the UK I can just see NICE saying sorry but we can't afford it. I don't think I am just being cynical - look at the NICE decision on Aricept for people with Alzheimers (Aricept isn't a cure but NICE decided its cheaper to just let people die than to pay the cost of prolonging their lives by 5 years or more).

 

[timo2]

Hi Rach79,

Pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are also both currently working on similar immunomodulation approaches. Currently leading the anti-autoimmunity pack are Tolerx,
who are at stage three human trials as we speak.

There's plenty of trials and development info on this and all the other approaches here:
http://joshualevy.pbwiki.com/DiabetesCureReadyForHumanTrials

"I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else."
~Sir Winston Churchill

Regards,
timo.

 

[Rach79]

Well I'm not giving up hope. Although at the moment it would just be a start if I could get my BG's under control but I am glued to some monitor that is testing my sugars 288 times in 24 hours so hopefully after that they will find a pattern.

I'd like to think the industry isn't just making a profit but sometimes it is hard not to see that they are doing just that. I suppose the drugs would be very expensive but in the case of the NHS or NICE they might welcome something like that because the cost of actually treating one diabetic alone costs hundreds of pounds - thinking now that they could actually save a lot of money by curing us, that might be the way forward and would save them big bucks in the long run

 

[Trinkwasser]

Bear in mind that even farting in their general direction appears to "cure" diabetic mice. There would appear to be major dissimilarities between small creatures programmed to live principally on sources of carbohydrates and people

 

[sugarless sue]

Bear in mind that even farting in their general direction appears to "cure" diabetic mice. There would appear to be major dissimilarities between small creatures programmed to live principally on sources of carbohydrates and people

Soo,people on metformin working in these laboratories could actually be distorting all this research then???

 

[Rach79]

Hi,
Whilst I'm not taking these words as gospel - I do have hope. It is nice to know that research is still going on out there for a cure but I'm quite happy to live with the condition as most people are. I am more upbeat than I was a few days back with regards to sugar control but I think I, like most others if not everyone finds some comfort in knowing that they are trying to find a cure even if it doesn't happen in the next few years, at least at some point it might be really good.

I don't know if the above research is evidence enough but to me it does sound quite promising, although it might not cure the likes of me, possibly it would cure a newly diagnosed diabetic and then they might be able to work from there but who knows. :roll: