"August: The important question is: Who funded the research??
KickStart101: Most of the money donated comes from the Canadians. We
are a small population but we are also spunky and Very generous.
JaysonJayhawk: Like August said, I'm sure the investors are watching this carefully. A cure would mean a loss of hundreds, if not, thousands of jobs, in the diabetes care industry for Type 1 diabetes."
This research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Alberta Heritage Foundation, Banting & Best Diabetes Centre, the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, the Canadian Arthritis Network, the Canadian MS Society and SickKids Foundation.
The only investors per se are the governments (federal/provincial) and individuals who donated to these various causes and/or charities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by E-NICE  While this approach has me optimistic. I have one nagging question. What about the genetifc aspect of type one in humans? Even if you suppress the immune system and get the beta cells to regrow on a large enough basis, would that be permanent? The bad genes that got us in this mess are still there. Not to say Im a geneticist or anything like that, just something that came to mind. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by E-NICE They never said what made the nerve clusters inflamed in the first place. |
According to this research, the immune system will
not be supressed: "Their conclusions
upset conventional wisdom that Type 1 diabetes . . . was solely caused by auto-immune responses -- the body's immune system turning on itself . . . Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of
malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas."
"Researchers . . . have found that diabetes is controlled by abnormalities in the . . . nerve endings in the pancreatic islet cells that produce insulin. This discovery . . . has led to new treatment strategies for diabetes, achieving reversal of the disease
without severe, toxic immunosuppression."
As for the "bad" genes, they didn't get us into the mess. It's complicated, it's late, and I likely won't explain it well, but the genes themselves only make us susceptilbe to diabetes, they do not cause it. Diabetes still needs a trigger -- a virus, or whatever, that likely causes the inflammation that causes the immune attack.
If the inflammation can be kept under control, and/or if they can find a way to either get those nerve endings producing their missing enzyme/peptite that makes them "invite" the immune response, then a virtual "cure" is possible. See the following quote:
“We started to look at nervous system elements that seemed to play a role in Type 1 diabetes and found that specific sensory neurons are critical for islet immune attack in the pancreas,” said Dr. Hans Michael Dosch . . . “These nerves secrete insufficient neuropeptides which sustain normal islet function, creating a vicious circle of progressive islet stress.”
“The major discovery was that removal of sensory neurons expressing the receptor TRPV1 neurons . . . prevented islet cell inflammation and diabetes . . . Disease protection occurred despite the fact that autoimmunity continues in the animals.”
"Strikingly, injection of the neuropeptide substance P cleared islet inflammation in NOD mice within a day and independently normalized the elevated insulin resistance normally associated with the disease. The two effects synergized to reverse diabetes without severely toxic immunosuppression."
It's my understanding that "the neuropeptide substance P" is the capsaicin which was injected into these mice. This is not the same as the neuropeptide which is the second element in any eventual cure.
Whatever you do, don't try injecting capsaicin. I've done a bit of research and pure capsaicin diluted with water in the ratio of 1:100,000 is still hot enough to blister tongue and lips.
90 % Rule 
The technique of applying this medicine may take a little while, but the mechanism seems to be very promising.
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