Troy stapleton

New “CURE” for Diabetes? A NEWS article in NATURE (nature.com/articles/d41586-0…) claims  woman reverses here diabetes with stem cell. The patient reported that she “can eat sugar now,” and “…enjoy eating everything — especially hotpots.”  Is this a “CURE” for T1D? Should we expect all patients with T1D to be insulin free in the near future?” NO…atleast not yet. We must be cautious with the term “CURE” and this is NOT THE FIRST STUDY to demonstrate a perceived “CURE” for T1D. In the year 2000, a research group demonstrated for the first time they could IMPLANT INSULIN PRODUCING BETA CELL and restore normoglycemia (nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NE…)…this work is now cited almost 7000x. This has a REMARKABLE impact on the field with people slinging for the first time: “CURE” around. Stating it was now just “around the corner”….but here we are 24 years later WITHOUT A CURE… what happened? 1)      Most got back on insulin 2)      Experienced weight gain 3)      All were on immunosuppresants 4)      Islet cell implants deteriorated over time AS THE IMMUNE SYSTEM STILL KILL THESE CELLS OVER TIME. THE IMMUNE SYSTEM HAS AND REMAINS ONE OF THE LAST BARRIERS However, this…NEW STUDY in CELL (cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092…)… has been shared with people again claiming a “CURE” but this time from STEM CELLS. So what is NEW here? What should we be excited about? These researcher took a 25 year old patient who had had T1D for a decade. 1)      They extracted her own tissue, specifically her FAT where they could derive STEM CELLS cells. STEM CELLS are a unique cell type which can “differentiate” into other cell types. 2)      Using a NOVEL chemical mix in a petri dish, these researchers were able to transform  these stem cells into CHEMICALLY INDUCE INSULIN PRODUCING BETA CELLS 3)      The patient was IMPLANTED last year in 2023 and 75days later she was INSULIN INDEPEENDENT with NORMOGLYCEMIA as of 1-year post implantation… REMARKABLE! What is novel about this study if a cure has been observed before and this is actually not the first study to show stem-cell derived insulin producing beta cell in vivo? The novelty was the way they chemically induced the stem cells in COMBINATION with a more favorable implantation site. This is a REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT…BUT IT IS NOT A CURE…yet. Just like the last “CURE” over 20 years ago, was not the cure. …but this does demonstrate yet another critical advancement to the slow steps towards getting one… It must be noted that the immune system remains a critical barrier as chronic immunosuppressant use does have long-term risk and have been demonstrated in some analyses to shorten life expectancy.

"It's still about glucose until proven otherwise?" "99% of complications were predicated on HbA1c" David Nathan #ADA2024