Dr. Denise Faustman’s vaccine for reversing advanced Type 1 diabetes has reached stage 2 human trials. A very exciting report!
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Not.holding.my.breath. I get so tired of seeing studies that purport to cure T1. This type of article has been showing up from time to time for decades. The only difference is in the details.
Thanks for posting the link to the report, Richard.
A cure has been “just around the corner–five years! mebbe 10!” since I was dx’d in 1983, and long before that I’m sure, so I share @phoenixbound’s wariness (weariness?) with this kind of thing. But I have to say this approach did intrigue me when I first read about her work some years ago and it is encouraging to hear it’s moved on to human trials.
Actually it sort of weirded me out as well. Kind of hard to put into words. It wasn’t that long after I switched from R/NPH to MDI, which was SO liberating, and the report about her work somehow gave me permission to actually I think about what it would be like to be cured, if only as a theoretical matter. And my feelings weren’t as simple as I expected. Imagine something that’s been a minute-to-minute, 24/7/365 accompaniment to your life for decade after decade (now 30+ years) being gone. Certainly that thing is a negative thing, a bad thing, but at the same time it becomes part of your identity and it’s just a strange feeling thinking about it being simply not-there after so MUCH energy and attention and frustration and god-knows-what has been sunk into it for all that time. It’s kind of like you’ve been trying to climb Everest for most of your life and someone comes along, hands you a ticket, and a helicopter picks you up and drops you off at the top. What about all that gear, and trudging dogged determination to get to the next treatment-regime base-camp, and all those millions of test strips and diabetic detritus littering the way. Poof! No more! After all that time and effort it’s so integral to my identity that it almost feels like an important part of who I am would be erased. It’s a really confusing way to feel!
That said, I’m sure I’d get over it quickly enough. I will definitely take the cure if it works out!
ANyone remember how many YEARS ago it was that we were told that islet transplantation was going to fix us. Look how well (NOT!) that is going. Sensational reporting on diabetes “cures” just ■■■■ me off to no end.
Thanks for posting this news, Richard. I’ve followed Dr. Faustman’s work for many years now. I’ve been a bit discouraged about the pace of this research as I age. I don’t have many five or ten year periods left in my life. I also identify with her as she’s not a widely celebrated medical researcher but she remains dedicated to this cause. What little I know about the FDA staged trials is that stage 1 focuses on safety and stage 2, efficacy. This is the stage that will reveal if this idea works and to what extent.
I understand the caution that we must use to defend ourselves against the over enthusiastic tales that we’ve all been told. But we need to steel ourselves for the long haul and take hope where we can. The story of the actual cure for type 1 diabetes is still being written. I think that the cure will be found, just not in my lifetime.
I’m quite certain I’ll see my life end before there is a cure, but if I’m wrong I’d be so happy to be wrong! LOL! For those who are far younger, I suspect that stem cell research will eventually cure many of today’s maladies. Here’s hoping!
Again, I totally get where you’re coming from. The one thing that’s a little different for me with this particular research is that, when I first read about it, the report wasn’t so much a hype piece, but about the fact that she was having a really hard time getting funded because she is an academic researcher and the BCG vaccine is a generic, so Big Pharma and venture capital firms were uninterested. “Nothing to be patented? Bu-bye, have a nice day.” A lot of medical big-hype stories originate with industry publicists whose primary concern is pumping the companies’ stock and getting that next round of v-cap funding, rather than the science itself. But this particular research seems less embedded in that whole money-making carousel.
I don’t understand why this particular research is taking so long. Their using an already developed drug. They just need to figure out a dosage and whether a specific dosage works. Seems like the hard part (drug development) is already done.
Yes, but they are trying to figure out how to apply it to reverse the effects of T1D on a long-term basis which requires additional dosing every “x” years. Therefore, the questions that need to be answered by research are how much to give, how frequently, what are the side effects (if any), do the damaging T-cells become immune to the BCG treatments, etc, etc.
For those with T1D, the time to conduct this type of research is agonizing for sure. After 41 years and counting, this cure probably would not help me anyway, but a cure for those 0 - 30 year diabetics would be cause to rejoice!
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Stage 1 of the human trials were for T1 kids. The reversal worked only temporarily. So additional injections would be needed. The dosage size and frequency needs to be determined.
Stage 2 is for T1 adults in the 18-60 age range.
Hi
Check the articles below but the first article about methodology its the most important one… So far its the best articles I read in details about the researches … and we get all the details about Dr Faustman’s research… its really interesting… No other article has more details than these two articles.
This first article is really important… Read it…
The Importance of Methodology in Curing Type 1 Diabetes or Other Disease
http://hdiabetes.com/blog/78-methodology-cure
The Skinny on Faustman’s Phase 2 : The Cure of Diabetes Type 1, or Diversionary Tactic? Dare We Dive In?
http://hdiabetes.com/blog/50-the-skinny-on-faustman-s-phase-2-the-cure-of-diabetes-type-1,-or-diversionary-tactic-dare-we-dive-in
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