New tests reveal man may be the first to recover from type 1 diabetes. What’s next?

A patient with type 1 diabetes is the first patient to be cured of the disease with a new treatment, according to a clinical trial report, paving the way for those who also hope to beat it.

Through The New York Times, the clinical trial from Vertex Pharmaceuticals has been testing a treatment for decades. Thirty years and $ 50 million later, the first patient is cured.

Brian Shelton, now 64, received his first cellular infusion of stem cells, which act like insulin-producing pancreatic cells his body lacked.

Her body now automatically controls her insulin and blood sugar levels. “It’s a whole new life,” Shelton said in The New York Times report. “It’s like a miracle.”

“This is a remarkable result,” said Dr. Peter Butler, diabetes expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the report. “Being able to reverse diabetes by giving them back the cells they lack is like the miracle when insulin was first available 100 years ago.”

The study will continue for five years, involving 17 people with a severe case of type 1 diabetes. This will give 9 million people with the disease a chance for a radical life change.

What is type 1 diabetes?

According to Centers for Disaster Control and Prevention, in type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not make enough insulin. Without insulin, blood sugar can build up in the bloodstream, instead of entering cells to be used for energy.

• Type 1 diabetes is less common and diagnosed in children, adolescents and young adults, but can develop at any age.
• People with this condition are at high risk for nerve damage, which can lead to amputations, heart disease, strokes, eye problems such as glaucoma and cataracts, and skin infections.
• In 2019, it was the ninth leading cause of death, with 1.5 million deaths that year, according to the World Health Organization.

What’s next for the research?

Currently, cell infusion therapy requires cells belonging to a class of immunosuppressants that suppress the immune system, said Professor Douglas Melton, whose lab pioneered the science behind the therapy, by The Harvard Gazette

Without immunosuppressants, these cells would be rejected by the body. “We want to find a way to genetically engineer cells that are not recognized as foreign,” he said.

• Melton sees this as a solvable problem – “When a woman has a baby, that baby has two sets of genes. It has genes from the egg, from the mother, which would be recognized as “self”, but it also has genes from the father, which would be “non-self”. Why doesn’t the mother’s body reject the fetus? If we can understand this, it will help inform our thinking about which genes to change in our stem cell-derived islets so that they can enter any person, ”he said.

A healthy dose of skepticism

Dr. Scott Summers, president of nutrition and integrative physiology at the University of Utah. believes that there is still a lot of work to be done and he views this study with caution.

“At this point, we have only read the results in one patient. The clinical trial is still ongoing and full results are not expected for several years. The document has not been peer reviewed. A heated discussion is currently underway among scientists as to whether it is ethical or appropriate to release data so early in the study, ”he told Deseret News.

The fact that it is a biotechnology company allows for an essential marketing aspect. “It is strange that a press release is issued so early in the study,” he added.

Summers also has suspicions about Melton. Although he is an excellent scientist, he reacted to a huge article five years ago. His group has reportedly discovered a hormone that could stimulate the proliferation of insulin cells. But these results could not be reproduced.

So Melton did what any ethical scientist would – he retracted the article.

“It’s a good reminder that the results must be rigorously evaluated and replicated by multiple groups before they are set in stone,” Summers said.

“Despite these concerns, I am excited,” he added. “This discovery could have a transformative impact on our understanding and treatment of this insidious disease. “