A step closer to a cure for T1 Diabetes

Three cheers to Denise Faustman, the innovative Diabetes researcher who has found a way to halt the autoimmune process that destroys pancreatic islet cells in Type I diabetics. So far, her work has focused on diabetic mice, but because her approach involves modulating the immune system, there is good chance it may also work in humans. She has succeeded in reversing diabetes in mice by injecting them with Freund's Complete Adjuvant (FCA), a mixture of water, oil and parts of dead bacteria. Apparently this compound stimulates T cells that attack the pancreas and causes those T cells to self-destruct. Faustman's research also involved transplanting spleen cells into the mice and she found that these cells differentiated into islet cells, allowing the treated mice to produce their own insulin. The big news this week is that three other labratories have now independently validated the first procedure -- the abatement of autoimmune islet destruction. While these labs did not confirm that spleen cells had any effect on producing new islet cells, they did discover that a significant number of tested mice regenerated their own islet cells after the destructive T cells were eliminated. In other words, by teaching the immune system to stop attacking islet cells, these researchers found that many diabetic mice were able to self-repair islet function and produce their own insulin.

This is absolutely fabulous news. A cure for diabetes would make millions of people happy and would free up billions of dollars that could be spent to tackle other diseases and global issues. It just might create an avalanche of good! With significant help from the Iacocca Foundation, Faustman is gearing up for human trials of this treatment. If you would like to help out, please donate a few dollars to help fund Faustman's work at the Massachusetts General Hospital Diabetes Unit.

It's important to realize that despite the promise shown in Faustman's work, her efforts have garnered no interest or money from large pharmaceutical companies or from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Some have accused the JDRF of refusing funding due to a political bias that favours stem cell research. If that is the case, Faustman's work will rely even more on individual donations if it is to continue.