I do not accept the idea that taking immunosuppressants for the rest of your life is a cure for anything. It just creates more problems. And the big issue with transplants is that even with immunosuppressive therapy they tend to not last forever. So, definitely not a cure- it’s more of an alternative therapy for people who already take immunosuppressants.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals encapsulated islet cells are a much better idea as they don’t require immunosuppressants, but it’s still not a cure. It’s an alternative therapy because you have to get them replaced periodically through outpatient procedure.
So far the only lab I know of who is attempting an actual cure are Faustman’s BCG trials. Happy to hear if anyone has leads on other researchers investigating a true cure for t1d.
I have been off line for awhile here. Just needed a break. But I check in and today I saw this post and thought, this is my kinda post. But didn’t go the way I had hoped.
I am coming up on 54 years with TID. And am living the best life now vs what I was living back in 1970. And it is all due to researchers doing the research to make my life better.
I also as a youngster thought there would never be a cure because companies were making so much money off us. Yes, I thought that.
But I finally got tired of complaining and got involved. My first big trial was indeed a stem cell study. It was tough but I learned so much and meet so many tireless, dedicated researchers who only wants to find a cure. They fight the battle everyday in the labs and operating rooms and the biggest battle is funding and grant proposals.
The devices they used for this study didn’t work. So the 5 surgeries were a failure if you look at the cells staying alive. But the study gave them so much information moving forward.
In all my years of fighting this disease, I am finally at the point that I believe the cure will happen and it will be stem cells. Stem cells are being used for many health issues. And I firmly believe this is the answer for all of us.
Now, do I think I will see it? Being honest, probably not. But I am getting ready to prescreen for another trail with stem cells. I will continue to do what I can to help those in the future. The cure will happen! It takes a long, long time for any of this stuff to come to market. And all this time the JDRF has been doing research, there were just as many failures as successes. Failures mean more time, fighting for more grant money, more FDA approvals. Nothing is quick. But I will keep plugging along with all the game changers that have come into my life. I don’t ever want anyone to have to go back to urine testing with test tubes and taking just one shot a day.
Research works and has done so much to help us all.
Please everyone don’t give up hope. We as a group have a lot of power to push our government for more money for research.
Plus, when a cure is discovered, it will make the discoverer a lot of money.
I truely think curing diabetes is extremely non-trivial, right up there with AIDS and cancer.
I think the current best hope is Dr. Denise Faustman’s work at Mass General.
I’ve been type 1 for over 37 years, and I’d like to thank Sally7 for putting her money where her mouth is by participating in research. In all of human history, almost no disease has ever been completely wiped out. Treatments are difficult to find, and sometimes they stop working … antibiotic-resistant bacteria, guys.
When I was diagnosed in 1986, they didn’t really understand that T1D was an autoimmune disorder. Autoimmune research into AIDS helped diabetes researchers gain a vast body of knowledge that pushed diabetes research forward greatly. No corporations were sitting on this knowledge keeping research back. There are too many groups of researchers working on this problem from too many different angles for real progress to be squashed that easily.
Diabetes hasn’t been cured yet, but before the early 1920s, it was a sentence of death by slow starvation and acidosis. Just face it - diabetes is difficult to cure because biology is incredibly complicated. And chances are that at first, any cure will be expensive enough and experimental enough that very few insurance companies will be willing to pay for it. And likely it won’t work for everyone because everyone’s diabetes is different.
Insulin wasn’t found quickly or easily, and for decades it was an animal product - no nice, recombinant DNA Insulin before the 1980s, people, because that technology is incredibly complicated, too.
Take a deep breath and face it. The corporations aren’t out to get you. Mother Nature manages that very well on her own.
Willow, and others who think this are fooling themselves into conspiracy theory nonsense. I am sorry, but if one had a cure, do you really think they would not use it, charge 1/2 million for it and be excited to get every dollar. .
Are heart surgeons out of business? Are cancer companies out of business? Turn you focus to something productive.
I nearly entered a vertex study and although encapsulated, you are required to stay on the immunosuppressive drugs for the entire study. Then at the end they remove the implants for study. This makes it not worth doing for me.
If you call them they will be honest about the process. They did a study where there was complete encapsulation and the study was a complete failure because the cells died. And now they are doing partial encapsulation where you need the drugs.
The effects of drugs are worse than the effects of diabetes. But I think they will get there eventually. Maybe too late for me, but I think it will happen one day
i use powerful immune suppressants so i was rejected by the study. However, I would have signed up in a heart beat. Immune suppressants seem scary, because they are, if you do not consider the good and only focus on the what if.
I am an optimist and sincerely believe a cure will be found and it is just a matter of time. I do not know what actually is regarded as a cure but I must surely be close to that as I have been in remission for many years without having to take any prescribed medication or changing my lifestyle in any manner.
A cure is a fully functioning pancreas.
Ask a guy who has had a leg amputated what a cure is!
Me, I’m not looking for a cure; rather I am looking for a palliative that really works. Kinda like the guy with one leg hoping the six trillion dollar man comes true (as opposed to hopping.)
But not quite; unlike ABC we really can rebuild ourselves. This is what our own work to supplement our pancreas is doing right now with all of the various OpenAPS stuff. It’s not a cure but it is our future.
While I suspect we are all aware of cases where industry has quashed innovation that might have led to their financial suffering (oil companies fighting electrification of vehicles for example), I’m doubtful that pharmaceutical companies are actively suppressing research to cure diabetes.
Remember that it’s not only insulin, there are many other hormones involved (and not only glucagon ether).
A cure will happen. Probably not soon enough for me but it will happen.
I do not accept the conspiracy theory that corporations are deep 6ing a cure for type 1 DM.
The first conspiracy theory I ever heard was JFK or that some guy invented a carbarator that would give 100mpg with performance, but GM bought it from the man and deep sixed it.
As far as a real cure of type 1 DM, what needs to be done in my opinion is to find a way to selectively reprogrammed the immune system to stop destroying Beta cells. Along with that would be if new Beta cells could be grown from the patient’s adult stem cells.
This would address the loss of endocrine insulin but to be really effective the new Beta cells would need to be in the Islets so the natural and normal communication between the Alpha cells and Beta cells could resume.
The benefits of reprogramming the immune system would be enormous to all those who suffer from autoimmune diseases.
The problem of curing T1DM is enormously complex. The only thing I think is worse is T2DM. For this to work there would have to be a rewriting of the genetic code of everyone of my body’s cells. This would be as many as 70 genes. I doubt there is any way to do that in the near or far future.
For people like me whose Beta cells are pretty much crapped out, there would be a need for new Beta cells as well grown from my stem cells and somehow rehomed to the islets.
I will not agree to immunosupressant drugs for life to cure** my diabetes. Better the divil you know
Has anyone ever tried reintroducing native (stem cell or whatever) beta cells into a 60 year old T1’s pancreas?
I developed the disorder at 11 or 12 years of age and my immune system had pretty much destroyed everything within a year. Yet I lived almost 12 years with those beta cells; it’s not an innate auto-immune disorder that kills you in the womb (well, maybe it is too, but no one will ever no; the perfect murder?)
I need the various flu and covid vaccines every year and I still get covid, just like I still get all the coronaviruses. But I didn’t get T1 for 12 years. Anyone who wants to inject me with my own stem cell grown beta cells speak up now; I’m 64, I won’t be able to say “yes” for much longer.