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Discussion New avenue for a Type 1 cure

D

david4503

Well-Known Member
Messages
181
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I was sent the following article from this very site:
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/202...ial-treatment-option-for-type-1-diabetes.html
This approach to a cure for Type 1 looks very promising to me and my doctor. I sent him the linked research paper from the article. It’s very technical but it boils down to a way to use your own pancreatic stem cells to cure your diabetes. This is Type 1 only, I should emphasize. It’s early with this approach to a stem cell cure but it’s hard to predict how quickly the research might progress. The big deal here is that it should eliminate the need for immunosuppressant drugs currently used in beta cell transplants.

I’m not one to get too excited but this is an exciting development.
 
I want to believe that we will see a complete cure for diabetes...
Do we still have ethical problems with the use of stem cells after the discovery of Yamanaka?
 
These are not embryonic stem cells so I wouldn’t foresee any ethical stem cell issues. Another advantage of this approach.
 
This is interesting but, as Type 1 is an autoimmune condition, what stops our body attacking the regenerated cells?
 
In Response said:
This is interesting but, as Type 1 is an autoimmune condition, what stops our body attacking the regenerated cells?
Click to expand...

The research write-up covers this question. They seem to have figured out how to interrupt the process by which the immune system is triggered to attack our own beta cells. (With this cure, these would be stem cells taken from our own pancreas and programmed to act as beta cells instead of other pancreatic cells.) As you know, Type 1 is a genetic disease and they appear to have determined how the defective gene(s) we have initiate the chemical process which leads to an immune response. They have or will have a way to intervene and stop this chemical process.

Getting the trigger process nailed down step by step looks like the really tricky part in terms of developing the actual therapeutic procedure with patients. It’s also the really groundbreaking part since they’ve already gotten stem cells to produce insulin.
 
how reassuring! I hope they will succeed
 
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