It sometimes bothers me that so many people say there will be no cure in their lifetime, and that they were told many years back that the cure will be here in 10 years and it never came. I don’t think we had actually made any advances on so many of the drugs that have been introduced in the past 10 years, and researchers now know a lot more about how to prevent the autoimmune attack. I think people ought to keep abreast of latest scientific breakthroughs before telling people that no cure will be found ever.
Uptill the 90s, the only breakthrough we had was islet transplant or a pancreas transplant, which was not permanent and is too expensive. Now, there are so many biotechs working on so many different mechanisms (islet sheets, encapsulated islets, vaccines, beta cell regenerators, very precise immunosupressants, T cells regulators, mesenchymal cells, dendritic cells etc) and multiple companies working on each of those mechanisms (competition is always a good thing). This wasn’t happening 10 years ago, and if 10 years ago someone had asked if there going to be a cure, I might’ve been compelled to say no. But now it just seems like we’re very close because so many new ideas are in human clinical trials (this wasn’t happening a lot before the 90s). And autoimmunity research has practically exploded these past couple of years.
I have hope…always have and always will!
We are getting there, in the old days they didn’t have a cure for the Flu and other simple diseases, but not today. I do believe that the day that there is a cure for diabetes will come. Just be patient my friend.
I agree, we are close on several different fronts right now. I expect a cure in my lifetime, for sure. Realistically, I think there will be large-scale Phase 3 human trials in the United States for at least one potential cure in the next 5 years considering some of the things you mention are already in or about to enter Phase 2. The encapsulated islets are already curing Type 1s in that Phase 2, incidentally.
These 3 are in Phase 3 trials already
Diapep 277
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/record/NCT00615264?term=diapep&rank=2
Diamyd
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00723411?term=diamyd&rank=1
TolerX
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00678886?term=tolerx&rank=2
But these are all for new onset only (except diamyd is concurrently trying out a novel combination therapy aimed at bith stopping the autoimmune attack and regenerating the beta cells too)
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00837759?term=diamyd&rank=5
The last one really sounds promissing.
Yeah, I tend to dismiss those because they have no bearing on those of us with long-standing disease but I recognize their value in light of the fact that I have two presently non-diabetic children. I didn’t know Diamyd was being used for us vets now. Too bad Diamyd only slows down the progression to Type 1. I’m not sure why it is even being considered when everyone who takes it ends up a Type 1 eventually.
I saw the trial results from phase 2. I agree diamyd only delays the onset, but it hasn’t been determined how long yet. It worked really well on people who had been diagnosed less than 6 months. I have a young son too and the diamyd vaccine given before the onset seems like the best bet at preventing T1. In LADA patients who were given diamyd at the beginning of their diagnosis, only 17% eventually had to go on insulin, compared to the 40-60% in the placebo group.
I’ve been D since 1970 and ever since then the cure “is just around the corner”, you “will” have these terrible consequences (oh and as an aside, I think most of those doctors are dead now)
I am just damn tired of the could-be, might-be that are not ready for prime time. Get me something where you are looking at a PII or PIII human trial and then I’ll get interested.
Until that time, the day-to-day management of this disease that was supposed to kill me 25 years ago deserves a bit more of my attention than 99.99999% of those claims.
hello there scott,missed you,go for it,tell it like it is
I always have hope for a cure, but I don’t live each day thinking about one. There are so many factors that need to fall into place, first.
I took part in the end of Phase II for the Tolerx study(I was one of the last few to get in).
I have had Diabetes for over a year now, and while my insulin needs have increased from my 6u a day of insulin(had a very, very strong honeymoon when it kicked in) to 33-35u a day(which I know is still low compared to others), my A1C’s have remained below 6.4 (the last three were 6.3 exactly, and the most recent was 6.2). The overall picture is very promising.
I will say, I don’t believe I had the results they were hoping for compared to others. I think it was 75% required less insulin after dosing(I do know of a few who were able to go off insulin completely).
Either way, it is a step in the right direction. Every little bit of information from these test studies helps doctors better understand what is going on, and improve upon.
When I was diagnosed almost 9 years ago, ‘they’ kept saying a cure was as close as 5 years away.
I’ve seen some amazing advancements in the time I’ve been D, but nothing even remotely close to a cure.
I am with Scott and Sarah. The cure is always 5 years away. For the last 30 years it has been 5 years away.
I have more hope now than ever before. But for me to consider any cure a cure we have to be to a point where we all are insulin independent, and they are giving the treatment to new diabetics as they are dxd. Until then we have treatments possible cures and things they are working on. I think that within my kids life time it will be there but I’m not so sure about my life time. Mainly because many of the possible cures take a long time to reproduce and methods and doseages would have to be figured out.
We have to hope, or getting up in the morning is too hard!
Scott-
I agree with you 100%. For 37 years I’ve heard the same… “the cure is just around the corner.” “We’ll see a cure in 10 years.” For me… I’ve focused on the day-to-day care and kept it consistent. I think consistency matters more than anything else. A cure? That would just be a really nice perk to the whole situation.
Diabecell is in Phase 2 and has already cured two Type 1 Diabetics (the only two who received the highest dose). That is unprecedented in the history of “just around the corner” cures. Faustman cured real Type 1 mice (also unprecedented) and her study will enter Phase 2 next year. I am as skeptical as they come, but I see real potential these days that didn’t exist even five years ago.
Yes scott.
It is like waiting for the Messhia. I hope the financial disaster does do cut research funds. what we need is luck but buying more lottery tickets helps.
yup, just around the corner did not apply until the late 90s in my opinion. I don’t think that doctors or endos should have even told their patients that a cure was around the corner because there simply wasn’t anything viable back then. Autoimmune research (not just diabetes research) has literally taken off.
Infact many drugs that are in human clinical trials for T1 have already been tested/are being used for other autoimmune conditions such as Crohns, GvHD, Rheumatoid arthritis and Multiple Sclerosis. The underlying cause of all these diseases is one an the same, autoimmunity. Any research being done on any disease in this field could be a potential treatment for type 1 diabetes.
I’ve been D since 1969 and unlike you guys, I did not hear that the cure was around the corner. What I heard, like Scott, was that I would be lucky to make it past 25. For some, it was true…a friend died at 27 and I won’t go into details. In terms of the trials, my brother in-law (an MD) does not want me to participate in any because, at this point, we don’t know the contraindications nor the long term effects of the new meds. I have participated in different trials to include the glucometers in the early '80s, but not with drugs.
For those of us who have been diabetics for a hell of a long time, we know that we may not be candidates for the use of the drugs or even getting transplants…perhaps, stem cells… And, most of us will not be able to afford them since it is usually the rich and ensured who reap the benefits.
So, my brothers and sisters, live one day at a time. Today is a good day…
The only trials we’ve done are the ones that involve just testing/bloodwork… I think the sharing of information could very well be helpful to a lot of the research being done 
I would be seriously hesitant to do anything that involved experimental drugs/treatment though… I think a lot of us probably feel that way.
Breakthroughs, control, management techniques are not cures. We are very fortunate for all for all of those things however, and they do indeed keep improving and coming up with better things to help us live with this disease. A cure will not be discovered until the cause is determined, and that is the caveat. And will that ‘cure’ work for all of the types? Will it be something that all diabetics will be able to afford, withstand or tolerate, or will it be just as destructive as the disease? IDK!! We still can’t cure a cold or the flu either. The word cure is deceptive, and I’m not waiting for one. I’m just trying to live long and well with my diabetes.