drummingfool
07-15-2009, 01:05 PM
Daily Express | UK News :: Diabetes cure in ‘less than two years’ (http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/110435/Diabetes-cure-in-less-than-two-years-)
DIABETES CURE IN ‘LESS THAN TWO YEARS’ ON THE WAY: A cure is in sight
Sunday June 28,2009
By Lucy Johnston and Martyn Halle
A CURE has been found for *diabetes, meaning that patients could soon be able to stop taking *insulin injections just to stay alive.
The breakthrough treatment, *using stem cells made from human bone marrow, is being used on *patients suffering from Type 1 *diabetes, a chronic condition affecting about 900,000 people in Britain.
The drug could be on the *market in less than two years.
Diabetes causes the *immune system to attack the pancreas, the organ that makes insulin, which in turn controls blood-sugar levels.
Early trials show the drug, *Prochymal, can stop the immune system destroying the pancreas.
Stem cells in the new drug form a barrier to protect the pancreas from attack, allowing it to recover and to continue *making insulin.
One of the US researchers, *Professor Aaron Vinik, a hormone specialist based in Virginia, said: “This is a very exciting discovery.
“When people get told they have diabetes it comes as a tremendous shock. They have to live with *having to take insulin injections for the rest of their lives because their pancreas has stopped making enough of its own insulin.
“In future we will diagnose patients and tell them not to worry because we have a cure that will stop the disease in its tracks.”
Trials of Prochymal, which has been tested on 60 patients with *early stage diabetes, is being fast-tracked by the American drug watchdog the Food and Drug *Administration. Final trials could start early next year, with the drug getting a licence by early 2011.
Stem cells are taken from *volunteers and multiplied in the lab to produce hundreds of millions of cells. Patients are given three *infusions of the cells into their bloodstream over 60 days.
Those already on insulin were able to reduce the amount as the stem cells started saving the *pancreas from destruction.
Professor Vinik, from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, *Virginia, said most patients would still need insulin to begin with, but “in a matter of months they would *probably be off insulin”.
Type 1 diabetes accounts for about 20 per cent of patients in Britain. Stem cell therapy is *unlikely to work for the two million sufferers of the more common diet-related Type 2 diabetes.
Earlier work on stem cells and diabetes has been only partially successful. Professor Vinik said the *approach with the latest research is “completely different”.
He said: “The bone marrow cells act to protect the pancreas so that it can continue functioning and making insulin. We are aiming for a complete cure where the pancreas recovers and where the bone *marrow stem cells continue to *protect it.”
Researchers believe that *Prochymal might even be able to help long-term sufferers of Type 1 diabetes as well as those who have only recently been diagnosed.
Often a handful of beta cells, those that make insulin, remain alive in the apparently “dead” *pancreas. Professor Vinik believes that by blocking off the immune attack on the pancreas, those remaining cells could grow so that insulin *production starts up again.
“Those trials haven’t been done yet but I believe that stem cell treatment could potentially help all Type 1 diabetics,” he said.
In diabetes, killer cells, designed to protect the body from infection, instead attack vital insulin-making cells. If blood-sugar levels are *allowed to rise, sufferers lapse into a coma and die. Sufferers must take insulin injections to stay alive.
Treating the disease and its complications, which include blindness and the loss of limbs, costs the NHS hundreds of millions a year. Any cure could lead to big *savings.
Nadey *Hakim, a surgeon at Hammersmith Hospital in London, said the research was “excellent”.
DIABETES CURE IN ‘LESS THAN TWO YEARS’ ON THE WAY: A cure is in sight
Sunday June 28,2009
By Lucy Johnston and Martyn Halle
A CURE has been found for *diabetes, meaning that patients could soon be able to stop taking *insulin injections just to stay alive.
The breakthrough treatment, *using stem cells made from human bone marrow, is being used on *patients suffering from Type 1 *diabetes, a chronic condition affecting about 900,000 people in Britain.
The drug could be on the *market in less than two years.
Diabetes causes the *immune system to attack the pancreas, the organ that makes insulin, which in turn controls blood-sugar levels.
Early trials show the drug, *Prochymal, can stop the immune system destroying the pancreas.
Stem cells in the new drug form a barrier to protect the pancreas from attack, allowing it to recover and to continue *making insulin.
One of the US researchers, *Professor Aaron Vinik, a hormone specialist based in Virginia, said: “This is a very exciting discovery.
“When people get told they have diabetes it comes as a tremendous shock. They have to live with *having to take insulin injections for the rest of their lives because their pancreas has stopped making enough of its own insulin.
“In future we will diagnose patients and tell them not to worry because we have a cure that will stop the disease in its tracks.”
Trials of Prochymal, which has been tested on 60 patients with *early stage diabetes, is being fast-tracked by the American drug watchdog the Food and Drug *Administration. Final trials could start early next year, with the drug getting a licence by early 2011.
Stem cells are taken from *volunteers and multiplied in the lab to produce hundreds of millions of cells. Patients are given three *infusions of the cells into their bloodstream over 60 days.
Those already on insulin were able to reduce the amount as the stem cells started saving the *pancreas from destruction.
Professor Vinik, from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, *Virginia, said most patients would still need insulin to begin with, but “in a matter of months they would *probably be off insulin”.
Type 1 diabetes accounts for about 20 per cent of patients in Britain. Stem cell therapy is *unlikely to work for the two million sufferers of the more common diet-related Type 2 diabetes.
Earlier work on stem cells and diabetes has been only partially successful. Professor Vinik said the *approach with the latest research is “completely different”.
He said: “The bone marrow cells act to protect the pancreas so that it can continue functioning and making insulin. We are aiming for a complete cure where the pancreas recovers and where the bone *marrow stem cells continue to *protect it.”
Researchers believe that *Prochymal might even be able to help long-term sufferers of Type 1 diabetes as well as those who have only recently been diagnosed.
Often a handful of beta cells, those that make insulin, remain alive in the apparently “dead” *pancreas. Professor Vinik believes that by blocking off the immune attack on the pancreas, those remaining cells could grow so that insulin *production starts up again.
“Those trials haven’t been done yet but I believe that stem cell treatment could potentially help all Type 1 diabetics,” he said.
In diabetes, killer cells, designed to protect the body from infection, instead attack vital insulin-making cells. If blood-sugar levels are *allowed to rise, sufferers lapse into a coma and die. Sufferers must take insulin injections to stay alive.
Treating the disease and its complications, which include blindness and the loss of limbs, costs the NHS hundreds of millions a year. Any cure could lead to big *savings.
Nadey *Hakim, a surgeon at Hammersmith Hospital in London, said the research was “excellent”.