Researchers in China say they have cured diabetes for the first time.
The patient, a 59-year-old man, received a groundbreaking cell transplant in 2021 and has been drug-free since 2022.
The experimental treatment involved creating an artificial version of cells in the pancreas that produce insulin and control blood sugar levels.
The man had been suffering from type 2 diabetes for 25 years and had lost virtually all functions of these cells, the so-called islets.
He was believed to be at high risk of fatal complications as he required multiple insulin injections every day to avoid falling into a diabetic coma.
The pancreas is an organ that produces insulin, among other things. Insulin is a natural hormone that our body uses to control the amount of sugar in our bloodstream. People with diabetes have difficulty regulating their blood sugar levels due to pancreatic dysfunction.
People with diabetes often use blood sugar meters, like this one pictured, to determine how much sugar is currently circulating in their bloodstream. This helps them decide what to eat and when to use insulin to best manage their disease.
Until now, no one has been ‘cured’ of diabetes, but doctors have discovered how to put diabetes into remission.
But this requires patients to follow a relatively strict diet and exercise program to prevent blood sugar problems from returning.
However, the case in China suggests that it is possible to restore the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels naturally without the patient changing their lifestyle.
The treatment used stem cells, a kind of blank cell that can be converted into the many different types of cells the body needs to function.
Under the right conditions, stem cells can turn into brain, muscle, kidney or even pancreatic tissue.
This treatment used a new chemical cocktail to convert the patient’s stem cells into pancreatic cells.
These cells produce insulin, which tells your body when to take sugar from the food we eat for energy.
In diabetics, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Too much or too little sugar in the blood can cause nerve damage, kidney damage, heart disease and more.
By implanting the new lab-grown cells, which can produce insulin, the patient could start producing their own insulin again, researchers suggest.
This is what doctors observed in the Chinese patient.
“I think this study represents an important advance in the field of cell therapy for diabetes,” said Timothy Kieffer, professor of cellular and physiological sciences at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who was not involved in the study. South China Morning Mail.
While this finding is encouraging, there is still a way to go before it can be adopted for the masses.
Scientists will then have to test their therapy in more patients.
After testing it in more people, Professor Kieffer said, they will have to find a way to scale up their effect.
Currently, converting blank ‘sperm cells’ into functioning pancreatic cells is incredibly complicated, time-consuming and expensive. Scientists will need to make the process easier if it is feasible for most people.
There is a chance that it will only work in treating type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.
Type 1 diabetics, whose pancreas has been attacked by the immune system, may have a harder time using this treatment because their immune system could reject the newly implanted cells, the study authors wrote.
Regardless of all the hurdles that still need to be overcome, this could be a huge step forward for the 38.4 million Americans currently living with diabetes and the 97.6 million people likely to develop the disease.
It is the eighth leading cause of death in the country.
This article, published in the Cell Discovery magazine is the result of decades of research, in many countries, into the best way to convert stem cells into islet cells, and how to get those islet cells into the body.
“Our technology has matured and pushed boundaries in the field of regenerative medicine for the treatment of diabetes,” said Dr. Yin Hao, one of the lead researchers.
The study was a collaboration between three institutions based in Shanghai: Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Renji Hospital.
Professor Kieffer said that in the future, this therapy “could free patients from the burden of chronic medications, improve health and quality of life and reduce healthcare expenditure.”