Last I heard the BCG vaccine route was not performing as well as had hoped, especially on those that have been type 1 for a long time.
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Sorry to hear that.
I’ve been in regular contact with Dr. Faustman’s lab and they are currently running a study with several hundred patients that is completely underway. their next 2 studies planned are for people with no residual beta cell function and pediatrics. The only thing holding those 2 trials up is money as they could be run concurrently with the other one.
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But according to displayname it is not doing well? I would participate if I could but traveling is not viable for me now even if I were picked for the study.
I was reading more about the man I mentioned here. The partcipants there had to not have been type 1 for long and they had chemotherapy as well as the stem cell implant. I assume that was done first. Maybe it killed off the T cells attacking his beta cells and reset the whole autoimmune attack.
I was reading about transplants recently and learned that a program near me does a bone marrow transplant as well as the organ transplant to help the body not reject the donor organs.
I would be really interested to see where @displayname saw that info because Dr. Faustman hasn’t published anything from this study so far and in fact since all of the participants only recently got their BCG vaccines there wouldn’t be anything to report yet anyways. The only other study on humans that Dr. Faustman has done was an 8 year extended trial on (IIRC) 6 people and although they didn’t get off insulin their insulin needs went down, BG’s stabilized and no severe lows were reported. All of the participants went from 8+ A1C’s to low to mid 6’s without any changes to diet or treatment.
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I heard about the results of that one. Maybe dn will let us know. I was on the mailing list but not getting mail anymore.
It could also be they picked people for stem cell treatment that didn’t make insulin but didn’t have the antibodies that attacked beta cells?
No, he is a type one with antibodies. Everyone in the study was.
Some people have antibodies and never develop diabetes. It’s distinctly possible that there is more involved in the triggering of developing type 1 than just the potential to which might be indicated by antibodies… just because an autoimmune reaction occurs at one point doesn’t mean that it has to be continuous for life…
Yes I am aware of those possibilities. This was a trlal done on people with antibodies who had type 1 obviously. We are talking about people with type 1 and with antibodies who received this treatment in the trial.
Yes. My point being that because someone has type 1 and antibodies doesn’t necessarily mean that if their beta cells could be regenerated that they would again be destroyed by their immune system. As evidenced by people who are antibody positive and never develop diabetes.
Sorry but I don’t get your point.
To my previous comment, I was only stating it is what I had heard. I can’t remember where I saw it now but I think it must have been talking about the first round of the study or something then. I by no means have solid reports or anything, it was just what i had read somewhere.
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Hopefully it is progressing well and can be a future alternative therapy for us down the road.
I was part of the first group doing stem cell research here in San Diego. It was just the first round. Strictly safety and procedural. I had 8 different devices implanted, 2 bigs ones and 6 small ones that were taken out every few months to see what was happening to the cells. No one was given enough cells to make any insulin. It was just to try and figure out how to do things. Testing to get into the trial was pretty tough. The key was making no insulin. Antibodies were not an issue. But they wanted to make sure there was no insulin production.
I was very excited to take part in the study, but it didn’t work. The device ended up so coated that no blood vessels could attach and the cells died due to no blood getting in. So they are working on different materials and such. I know they have another study going on with this same kind of device but the patient is on anti rejection drugs so the antibodies don’t destroy the cells. This would on,y be used for people already using these drugs or for people with very “brittle” diabetes. So the market isn’t very big for this. It was a tough trial to do as there were a lot of surgeries and I was picked to use these drugs for the first four weeks. The joys of trials! But my cells did look and last a little longer but not by much.
I do think this is very promising and I have high hopes they will find the right material that will allow insulin out, blood in without letting the antibodies to cross the barrier. I just think it is a long way off. But I do have hope!
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Was that the viacyte study Sally? Thanks for participating. I am sorry it was so difficult. I hope they figure it out. I read an article recently about a study where they took beta cells out of long term type 1 I think and they started producing insulin without the autoimmune attack. So really shutting off the attack needs to be focused on. And or protecting the new cells if transplanted.
It was with Viactye. They are based here in San Diego. I remember there was an article in the local paper about the trial, and I immediately called and wanted in. And of course because it was the first group, they didn’t want to do women first. But I did finally get in and was the first woman. Probably because I was so darn pushy!
But as I said, I do have high hopes for this type of study. It just amazes me what they can do with stem cells. And this is from just one line. So very darn cool!
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I applied to but was not considered due not living there. But it sounds like it would have been too much for me. It is amazing. I hope something happens soon.
Do you mind saying who the man is? I had a stem cell transplant 1 month ago. So far, not much has happened, but my insulin has reduced very slightly.
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Do you mind me asking where you had your transplant done? I know a family with a newly diagnosed T1 son travelled to China to have the procedure done several months ago.
I haven’t seen him on Twitter lately, I’ll have to check in on him
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