Help support the Springpoint project.... Pigs to the rescue

Like living cell technologies in New Zealand there is US based organization that goes under the name Springpoint Project. The man who started the company his son has diabetes. They have been at this for quite a few years as well and are only one step away from human trials. Can you say (FDA...bs) I have donated to them in the past and will do so again for 2012. If you are in the holiday spirit and can spare a few bucks... these are good people working to try and help us. Here is the latest article

http://www.newrichmond-news.com/event/article/id/34595/

and their website is here

http://www.springpointproject.org/

Sounds quite encouraging. Thanks for posting. Admit that I get more excited about treatments that don't require immunosuppressive drugs.

Gerri,

I am not exactly sure about what they are using against the immune attack?? Obviously something other then encapsulation like LCT. Despite the fact that Immune suppressive drugs are toxic they would be realistically unaffordable for most people anyway at about $25k to $30K yearly. Even if you have Ins and they would cover them you'd be up the creek if they stopped or you lost your coverage. Not a very realistic situation across the board. If I had the choice I'd probably make the trade (if the cost was the same as insulin) and take the drugs to get off insulin completely and be able to eat whatever I want with perfectly normal sugars. Maybe if we wait long enough something will eventually work....

Their site didn't say what they're using other than immune suppression. $20-$30,000 a year would be very unrealisitc!

"The research team also identified critical pathways involved in immune recognition and rejection of pig islet transplants.

Targeting these pathways with more selective and safer immunosuppressive therapies is the focus of current research. Successful completion of these studies may make initiation of clinical trials in humans possible in the next years.

Many studies have been initiated to find the best immunosuppressive regimen to prevent rejection of a pig islet transplant by the recipient, the diabetic patient. A solution came out of the Diabetes Institute at the University of Minnesota.

The group, led by Dr. Bernhard Hering, transplanted pig islets in diabetic monkeys, the animal model closest to the human situation in a diabetic patient. Using an innovative new immunosuppressive protocols they achieved prolonged reversal of diabetes without the need of additional insulin, for more than six months an unprecedented result. This result opened a new way, namely to proceed to a trial in patients with diabetes, which proved to be a turning point in pig islet replacement therapy."

Gerri,

I think their goal was to use the drugs before and after the transplant but not indefinitely. Even if the drugs were safer then the current ones no insurance company is going to fork out that kind of money. It would be a total loss for them. A few weeks back I also discovered this development which also looks very interesting. They are based out of Korea. I'm all for supporting the US in general but at this point I don't give a rats A$$ who develops a successful treatment. Here is the article.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/11/01/2011110101156.html

That's an encouraging development. I don't care who develops anything. Geography means nothing. Maybe better for all diabetics if it's not the US. Look what happened to Smart Insulin.

The real encouraging thing about that trial is it was done in Monkey primates which are the closest to an actual human. Of course close may not be close enough. There are quite a few promising things in the works but more importantly we need to eliminate the mentality of diabetes is too profitable for anyone to want to cure it. We need to fight back and make people understand this is not a joke and a better treatment is desperately needed. It should be more viewed like cancer in that it can be fatal with the current treatment. I get by pretty cheap with my diabetes (Maybe $1500 a year including lab work) but then again I live at home and have no real bills. I use NPH, R and some humalog for the highs. I don't test often so I don't spend much on sticks either. My credit cards are clean, I have no car payment or really much of any bills. Most my working money goes into savings. This is one of the reasons I can easily send researchers some cash. I will be sending Dr Faustman a C note for the new year of 2012.

Yeah the Smart Insulin thing is a real letdown. I am really not sure what to think. I don't see the motive in not moving forward with it on Mercks end. They have nothing to loose and everything to gain. There was a recent event that Dr Zion attended and spoke at though he made no mention of its current status with Merck.. If you get bored here it is...

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/11/01/2011110101156.html