Just consider the new treatments that can be made using your OWN beta cells. This could open up many new methods and modalities of treatments and could be a huge step forward. I would not be half as excited if this article was not published in Nature, an esteemed, peer-reviewed journal. What do you think?
How you might be thinking, because of the autoimmune issue.
This way: If they can figure out what the protein markers on the outer surface of the cells are that flag the immune response, they might be able to remove or alter the genes for these markers, thereby making the cells invisible to the immune system again.
All of this is very long-shot, pie-in-the-sky stuff at this point, but then so was producing pluripotent functional beta cells from adult stem cells not long ago.
I think this is encouraging news.. Since they're working on encapsulation of implanted islet cells made from stem cells to stop the autoimmune attack I think this could be done with our own beta cells also? Yes it may be a long way off, but it is still good news. Any means they can find to stop or prevent the autoimmune attack will be a huge discovery.
The worry some thing about changing cells from one thing to another is controlling the process. We all know too well that pancreatic cancer is a death sentence. If the process is not perfect it’s easy to see what could happen. I don’t think science has advanced far enough to do this with minimal risk. There are too many unknowns. No one knows how alter cells will react in the body or how the immune system will react and if the growth of them can be controlled. I bet it’s 20 years before this could be used in real life.
