Chinese scientists develop cure for diabetes, insulin patient becomes medicine-free in just 3 months

[Beijingwalker]

Chinese scientists develop cure for diabetes, insulin patient becomes medicine-free in just 3 months​

ET Online
Last Updated: May 27, 2024, 04:58:00 PM IST

Synopsis:
Chinese scientists achieve diabetes cure through innovative cell therapy, detailed in Cell Discovery. Patient, treated in July 2021, no longer requires insulin after eleven weeks, and is now medication-free for 33 months. The breakthrough, praised by Timothy Kieffer, signifies a major advancement in diabetes treatment. This novel approach utilizes the body's regenerative abilities and could alleviate China's healthcare burden. Further studies are needed for validation.

In a significant medical milestone, Chinese scientists have successfully cured a patient's diabetes using a groundbreaking cell therapy. This pioneering treatment was developed by a team from Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, the Centre for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Renji Hospital, and was detailed in the journal Cell Discovery on April 30.

Patient's Journey to Recovery​

According to a South China Morning Post report, the patient underwent the cell transplant in July 2021. Remarkably, within eleven weeks, he no longer required external insulin. Over the next year, he gradually reduced and ultimately stopped taking oral medication for blood sugar control. "Follow-up examinations showed that the patient’s pancreatic islet function was effectively restored," said Yin, one of the lead researchers. The patient has now been insulin-free for 33 months.

This breakthrough marks a significant advancement in cell therapy for diabetes. Timothy Kieffer, a professor at the University of British Columbia, praised the study, saying, "I think this study represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes."

Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects the body's ability to convert food into energy, leading to severe complications if not managed properly. Traditional treatments involve insulin injections and constant monitoring, which can be burdensome for patients.

Innovative Approach to Cell Therapy​

The new therapy involves programming the patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells, transforming them into "seed cells" to recreate pancreatic islet tissue in an artificial environment. This approach leverages the body's regenerative capabilities, an emerging field known as regenerative medicine.

"Our technology has matured and it has pushed boundaries in the field of regenerative medicine for the treatment of diabetes," Yin stated.

Implications for China's Healthcare System​

China, with the highest number of diabetes patients globally, faces a substantial healthcare burden. According to the International Diabetes Federation, 140 million people in China have diabetes, with 40 million relying on lifelong insulin injections. This new cell therapy could significantly reduce this burden.

Kieffer noted that if this cell therapy approach proves effective in larger studies, "it can free patients from the burden of chronic medications, improve health and quality of life, and reduce healthcare expenditures." However, he emphasized the necessity of further studies involving more patients to validate these promising findings.

 

[ety]

Great news indeed.

 

[Beijingwalker]

Chinese woman finds type 1 diabetes reversed after stem cell transplant in world first​

Monday, 30 Sep 2024

Glucose-lowering drugs and insulin injections often struggle to maintain precise blood sugar control for those living with diabetes.

BEIJING: Chinese scientists have reported the world’s first case of using cell transplants to treat type 1 diabetes.

The patient, a 25-year-old who had the chronic condition for over a decade, was able to naturally regulate her blood sugar some 2½ months after undergoing the minimally invasive surgery, Shanghai-based news outlet The Paper reported on Saturday.

According to the report, the surgery took just half an hour.

The team behind the breakthrough published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Cell on Wednesday. Researchers from Tianjin First Central Hospital and Peking University were among those who took part in the study.

Diabetes is a major health threat worldwide. According to the International Diabetes Federation, China has the highest number of cases globally, with over 140 million patients and a prevalence rate exceeding 12 per cent.

The breakthrough cure converted these cells into personalized stem cells that were then used to grow clusters of fresh 'islets', hormone-producing cells in the pancreas and liver that help to regulate sugars in the body.

'I can eat sugar now,' said the 25-year-old, who lives in the city of Tianjing, where researchers say her body has successfully produced its own insulin for over a year.

The treatment, which outside experts have called stunning and 'wonderful,' builds on a related milestone in Shanghai in April.

That April case was different in that it involved transplanting stem cells into the liver, whereas the new method involved transplanting the newly made islets into the patient's upper abdomen near her pancreas.

Prior islet transplants into the liver have been harder to observe via noninvasive methods like MRI, experts said, making it harder to remove these cell-clusters in a worst case where a patient's immune system rejects and attacks the transplant.

This new method, inserting the islets just under the abdomen, allowed researchers to monitor the progress of these islets via MRI with comparative ease.

'They've completely reversed diabetes in the patient, who was requiring substantial amounts of insulin beforehand,' transplant surgeon Dr James Shapiro, who was not involved in the new study, told the journal Nature, approvingly.

Other independent experts joined Dr Shapiro, who serves as a medical researcher at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, in praising the breakthrough.

'If this is applicable to other patients, it's going to be wonderful,' diabetes researcher Daisuke Yabe of Japan's Kyoto University told reporters.

Some medical professionals, however, expressed caution over these results, waiting to see if the team's successful treatment can be reproduced in still more patients.

University of Miami endocrinologist Dr Jay Skyler, who specializes in type 1 diabetes, noted that he would prefer to see if this 25-year-old test patient continues to produce insulin for herself at least five years total, before considering her case truly 'cured.'

Health experts have generally also noted that the technique of crafting personalized transplants using the recipient's own cells is currently difficult to scale-up cost effectively — meaning the price tag for this diabetes cure could be staggeringly high in the early going.

The medical researchers at Nankai University and Peking University in China behind this new study noted that their test patient was already on immunosuppressant medication for a liver ailment.

Therefore it remains unclear if other patients' bodies might reject a transplant of similar islets derived from their own, personal extracted cells.

The June 2023 operation, as the team published in the journal Cell on Wednesday, took less than half an hour.

'The patient achieved sustained insulin independence starting 75 days post-transplantation,' as the Nankai and Peking University team wrote in Cell.

By the fourth month after her transplant, the 25-year-olds patient's total time in the desired or target blood sugar range leapt up from 43.18 percent to 96.21 percent.

Her so-called 'time-in-target glycemic range' has been above 98 percent, ever since, the researchers reported.

Medical experts have hoped that transplants like this — which subtly guide extracted patient's cells into becoming stem cells then used to grow more specialized cells for transplant back into the patient — might be less prone to rejection by the body.

The hope is that this method might override the need for immunosuppressant drugs, which help prevent transplant rejection at the cost of weakening a person's entire immune system.

Several groups, including private pharmaceutical companies, have started testing their own islet cell transplant treatments, also created using donor stem cells.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston, Massachusetts, with Dr Shapiro's assistance, has initiated a trial on a patient who also has type 1 diabetes, but is not prescribed with a regimen of immunosuppressant drugs.

'That trial is ongoing,' according to Dr Shapiro. - Agencies

Chinese woman finds type 1 diabetes reversed after stem cell transplant in world first

25-year-old with chronic condition for over a decade has no need for external insulin some 2½ months from minimally invasive surgery.

www.thestar.com.my

 

[Beijingwalker]

Is this good enough to win The State Preeminent Science and Technology Award? Beating cancer and diabetes has been the dreams of the humanity for centuries.