Type 1 diabetes: is there a cure? Maybe – for a man ‘It’s a whole new life’

The first patient to test a new treatment for type 1 diabetes, developed over decades and administered by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, appears to have been cured of the disease, according to a report.

According to The New York Times, the treatment, which uses insulin-producing stem cells, was given to Brian Shelton, 64, the first patient in the clinical study, on June 29. producing pancreatic cells that his body lacked.

Now, Shelton’s body automatically controls its insulin and blood sugar levels, the report says.

Prior to treatment, Shelton’s life was “governed by type 1 diabetes,” according to the report. When his blood sugar dropped, Shelton passed out without warning. An episode in which he passed out while delivering mail forced him to retire at 57, after a quarter of a century of working in the Post Office.

Earlier this year, his ex-wife, Cindy Shelton, who had taken him to her home in Elyria, Ohio because she “was afraid to leave him alone all day,” noticed a call for people with type 1 diabetes to participate in a Vertex Pharmaceuticals Clinical Trial, the Times reported.

Research by Harvard University biologist Doug Melton led to the treatment. Melton vowed to find a cure for type 1 diabetes and embarked on this quest 30 years after her baby, and then her teenage daughter, contracted the devastating disease.

Shelton’s positive response to treatment – he may be the first person cured of the disease – makes experts “dare to hope” that there could be help for many of the 1.5 million Americans with type 1 diabetes, according to the report, noting that it is not intended as a treatment for the most common type 2 diabetes.

“It’s a whole new life,” Shelton said. “It’s like a miracle,” the Times quoted.

Although Shelton’s results astonished diabetes experts, they call for caution as the current study “will take five years, involving 17 people with severe cases of type 1 diabetes,” the Times explained.

Dr Irl Hirsch, a diabetes specialist at the University of Washington who was not involved in the research, told The Times: “We’ve been looking for something like this to happen literally for decades.

While Hirsch is keen to see the result reproduce in more people and know if there will be any unforeseen side effects and how long the cells will last, he acknowledged that “in the end, this is an incredible result.”

The New York Stem Cell Foundation, claims that type 1 diabetics do not produce insulin because their immune system “mistakenly attacks the cells that produce it.” Currently, the administration of insulin is the most common treatment for type 1 diabetes.

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