HEY ALL. . I saw this quick YouTube video and it seems exciting.
Pulling some alpha cells fron a woman’s pancreas and some way of transfecting them to become beta cells.
I read the caul study which is difficult to digest, but this video gives a quick snip. I think this will be the direction. Cure will come. No need for immune suppression. I would take this treatment if it was available to me
Seriously?
That looks to me like an example of a new business pattern: create an exciting content-free video on a topic people care about, try to get it to go viral, make money.
There are lots of medical investigations into how to make new beta cells, and lots of research into how to protect those new cells from destruction by the same autoimmune process that caused Type 1 diabetes in the first place. It’s been work in progress for decades, and we hope that someday they’ll get it figured out.
I’m not aware of any big breakthroughs lately. Just a long history of projects that make incremental progress and that hope they’ll hit the jackpot. I wish them all success because a cure sounds better than what I need to do all day every day to stay well. Unfortunately, I don’t see any signs that a cure is just around the corner.
There is no mention of how they are planning to curb the autoimmune attack on those new beta cells. This means that the new cells will continue to be destroyed and her T1 diabetes will continue unless she continually gets more new beta cells. And this is where the researchers have been hitting their heads against the wall… encapsulating the new cells in various kinds of protective pouches that would allow nutrients to get in to feed the cells, and insulin to get out to feed you, but at the same time providing protection from the killer T-cells. Nothing really new here.
There is also no mention that perhaps there will be no autoimmune attack on these modified cells coming from and going back into the same body.
And that is the crux of the matter.
My first reaction, considering it was from a social media site and the speaker looked more charismatic than professional, was that it was scammy, but the video Timothy posted is legitimate and cites the same source as the one I reposted, below. Yes, it is hyped, i.e., “cured diabetes”, and short on details, and as with much content on social media it is an opportunity for revenue generation, but, that said, the video offers the same Nature link I provided, so if one wanted to delve further into the details, one could.
This raises a different issue, in that one of the problems we have with disinformation, and the medical arena is a big area for this, is that many people get their information from social sites, from charismatic and authoritative-seeming sources, that sounds plausible, but it is mostly an avenue for grifters, if only by views, but also by alternative medicine scams.
There is an actual study in china. This was just a quick video that got my attention. I’ll share the link to something Can stem-cell therapy successfully treat type 1 diabetes?.
That latest article has a nice quote from the Chinese researcher named Deng.
“…challenges that need to be addressed in the field of stem cell-derived islet transplantation for diabetes therapy in order to extend its clinical benefits to many more patients include [the] development of appropriate immunomodulatory strategies, and the clinical manufacture of stem cell-derived islets in an efficient and cost-effective manner.”
To me, the key here is “appropriate immunomodulatory strategies.” The Chinese woman who successfully started making enough insulin after the implantation already was on immunosuppression medication, and it seems the “no need for immune suppression” is a hope, not yet an achievement.
Yes her body will likely attack her new cells the same way it attacked her original islet cells, but the fact that it was possible at all is a breakthrough. Also she was newly diagnosed, not sure how a type 1 who has been type 1 for 20 years will do on this kind of therapy. Still it’s the first one.
There is also no reason to think that the same cells going back into the body will not attract the same autoimmune attack. There is not much information there.
I guess. But doesn’t it take a fairly long time between when our body first starts having an autoimmune reaction and when enough cells are destroyed to be symptomatic. And, on top of that, doesn’t the “honeymoon period” last a year or so, especially with good control?
When I was diagnosed many moons ago, I was told the honeymoon period was three months but I’m fairly certain it lasted much longer. Bottom line: couldn’t a Type 1 benefit for several years from a new supply of insulin producing cells? Maybe that wouldn’t make sense financially or medically but it sure would be nice.