Noela Vallis of the Spinal Cord Society of New Zealand says she can have a cure for T1D in a year

Has anyone read about this? She is working with Drs. Jim Faed and Paul Turner. Their study and trial involves stem cells harvested from the patient's own bone marrow, which is based on the Chicago study. A lot of hot air or should we feel hopeful?
I have attached the link below:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/7914909/Stem-cell-study-holds-diabetes-cure-promise

Sorry, but over the decades I have seen these sorts of funding requests time and again. And still no cure. At least in this one, they say up front that they want more funding. As for curing us in a year - that's a new twist. I guess people no longer believe the 5 ore 10 year prediction.

I am also not convinced of the autoimmune issue. This is due to the fact that many type 1 diabetics get kidney transplants after kidney failure. They are immunosuppressed and they don't regenerate beta cells. There has also been research that suggests that the initial autoimmune attack fades with time. So there is no need to suppress it if it is no longer in play. This treatment might work in newly diagnosed patients to prevent further damage, but for us long timers it doesn't sound plausible. Like I said, I've heard this train of thought before maybe about 15 years ago.

Sorry to be such a downer.

Cora

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I think the thing about one year is pretty strange. As far as I can tell nothing gets done in a year. I can't imagine trials and then gov't approval in a year.

Something about the asking for money part, too, rubs me wrong. Is this a normal way to go about getting funding? I think that thing with the vaccine in Boston is also privately funded and seeking donations, but the stuff I read about it felt more legit somehow.

I've always felt that the news articles seem to coincide with the fact that they need more funding. It's not always this overt, but funding is often mentioned later in the articles.

I agree too that the 1 year prediction is ridiculous. You can't get any drug on the market in that amount of time.

Cora

I think that he means that he will have the answer or the protocols in 1 year. Even though I doubt that. If he did it would be more like 10 years before it actually made it to the market.

It was a little over a year (Oct 1920 to Jan 1922) between Banting reading about some interesting pancreatic research in a decades-old medical journal, and the first child being treated with insulin.

"In one of medicine's more dramatic moments, Banting, Best, and Collip went from bed to bed, injecting an entire ward with the new purified extract. Before they had reached the last dying child, the first few were awakening from their coma, to the joyous exclamations of their families."

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Things aren't that simple these days. You couldn't get away with jumping in to save a dying child, even if you wanted to. Today you need to go through animal testing, and then multiple stages of other testing. It's a long arduous process.

Agreed - I don't expect something on the market in the next year. I think the point is that they will have something that could be a cure in one year - if, of course, they are on the right path. Then it would need to go through all the tests, approvals, etc. I googled Dr. Turner (he has had T1D for 40+ years) and the info on him makes this seem more legitimate.

I wish these studies would find a cure first, a cure that really works, then talk about it. I don't believe they have a cure in mind, nor is this organization/person in a position to finish with they started, much less brag about something that isn't there.

We are all going to die some day. As for me, I am going to live as long as possible, dead pancreas or not.

cures make no money so no one goes down that path anymore. It is all about chronic management. That is where the money is.

I don't think that argument works since, with a genetic disease, even if people who have diabetes of whatever variety now are cured, there's an endless supply of future patients built into the genetic pipeline. A bottomless money pit!

took me a bit of diggging, found their basic sysnosis;
http://www.scsnz.org.nz/assets/Uploads/diabetes-winter-2012-focus-2.pdf

looks like a reduction in insulin required as the pancreas starts to "fire up", who knows, either way the other study that they're falling on as starting point:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1741-7015-10-3.pdf

too much sceince for me brain after running this morning... ole stem cellls... might read later when i get a chance! it'll pass some time! :)

Yes... only $800 K brings happeniness or the nextr stage.. "Noo Nooo Doc!! You ain't sticking me with that needle!!! I hate needes!! OW OW OW" :)

I disagree. think of what a diabetic spends on insulin blood testing and pump supplies in a lifetiime of diabetes. I am sure it is 30x what a cure could cost. I am not silly enough to suggest there is a cure that is being hidden, it is just that very few dollars are spent on the pursuit because there is no money and no recurring income. Medical research is ALL about recurring income. I wish it were different. In the late 80s there was a blood glucose finger stick machine that used no strips and was cleaned each use. I never had one because it was expensive to buy. of course it was pulled off the market. If they put some money into that instead of this "strip" boondoggle, we would have finger sticks for almost nothing.

this is how and why we get free meters and expensive strips, same reason printers are free or cheap. the ink pays for it.

this has been the model since the mid 80s esp in medicine.

I work in the laboratory research field. I have seen billions invested into keeping testing more expensive and limiting the options of the users.

When i started about 25 years ago, most laboratory equipment could accept reagents from anywhere, and were completely versatile.

That does not exist anymore. No instrument accepts reagents from other manufacturers anymore, and they got to great lengths to prevent it too.

It does not have to be this way, but everyone does it because it is much more profitable this way.

Don't kid yourself, this is a multi-billion dollar business every year.

It’s been 10 years. How’s that cure coming along?

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It’s the same promise dangled in front of us for many decades.
I was told a cure was within 5 years at diagnosis. That was 34 years ago.
I stopped believing it. I’ve also noticed the doctors don’t even say that anymore.
I really don’t want to hear about a cure until there is one.

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@Timothy, the cure for diabetes was discovered 30 years ago. The gadget pharmas got together and bought it and then deep-sixed it, never to be seen again.
,

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What is the gadget

@Timothy
You don’t recognize “tongue-in-cheek”?!!
“Gadget” is any of the many diabetes adjuncts that are in existence today… pumps, testers, sensors, etc. I have a Tandem x2 that operates in conjunction with a Dexcom. I consider them to be “gadgets.”

I tried to add an emoji but found I could not access them for some reason.

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In response to the original post, all there is to say, really, is “Note date of original post.”

:melting_face: :smile: :person_shrugging:

That’s sad since 30 years ago we were still us
using treatments that weren’t real great let alone curing a very difficult disease.

I was fortunate I was never told that wishful thinking. I hope today’s Docs have learned better.