Harvard team "cures" diabetes in mice with stem cells; a similar clinical trial is lauched by others

[bookbah]

In a world-first, Harvard University's Doug Melton reported in a top journal "curing" diabetes in mice using both embryonic and adult stem cells, meticulously creating perfect beta cells that respond repeatedly to insulin. A similar approach by a different and unrelated group, involving stem cells that were differentiated to slightly less mature beta cells than Melton's before implant, is at the heart of a clinical trial in Type 1 patients. http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/articles/2014/10/embryonic-stem-cells-trial-diabetes

 

[SamJB]

Amazing. They're starting human trials in a few weeks. I'm very confident that there will be a cure, or a closed loop system, available to us in the next 5 years or so.

 

[Emmotha]

Hello
Might be a daft question, but won't our antibodies just kill them off again?

 

[SamJB]

Hello
Might be a daft question, but won't our antibodies just kill them off again?

They say that they're planning to put the cells in a capsule that blocks immune cells from entering. Doesn't mention whether this capsule has been invented yet!

 

[daniT1D]

They say that they're planning to put the cells in a capsule that blocks immune cells from entering. Doesn't mention whether this capsule has been invented yet!

Yeah I read it needs to go in a capsule which they haven't even started to develop!


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[SamJB]

Yeah I read it needs to go in a capsule which they haven't even started to develop!


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

Ah. Slight stumbling block there. Sounds like the hard bit has been done. I suppose the could put it into a porous capsule, with holes smaller than a white blood cell. Who knows!?

 

[daniT1D]

I also loved the quote "4 months after transplant only 1 of the 6 mice had died" :O


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[PaulinaB]

I also loved the quote "4 months after transplant only 1 of the 6 mice had died" :O


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

Oh my god!

I guess even if your immune system kills them, you can have another implant! Even if that's every year, I'd go for one procedure per year instead of X insulin injections per day

 

[LucySW]

They say that they're planning to put the cells in a capsule that blocks immune cells from entering. Doesn't mention whether this capsule has been invented yet!

But Sam, wouldn't this mean immunosuppressants for life? I'd prefer insulin to that.

 

[kitty55]

But Sam, wouldn't this mean immunosuppressants for life? I'd prefer insulin to that.

Don't think so cos if they're encapsulated I don't think you need immunosuppressants. Or am I wrong?

 

[SamJB]

Don't think so cos if they're encapsulated I don't think you need immunosuppressants. Or am I wrong?

Yes, I think that's right.