I thought this was an interesting study. Of course, they took their recipe book from insulinomas, which are basically benign forms of cancer. And you don’t want a bunch of off-target effects, and this isn’t even a mouse study, it’s a cell culture study as far as I can tell. But…the idea is pretty neat:
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The last statement though was that it would be translatable to human beings in 5-8 years! That almost sounds like a cure! Or did I misunderstand??!
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well they also have to figure out how to stop our immune system from destroying the new beta cells. Plus, by translatable to humans I am assuming they mean “phase 1 safety trials” – not “you can go pick these up in the local clinic in 5 to 8 years.” That could mean 10 to 15 years or more till it would even be available if everything went to plan.
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Good points! I was wishful thinking! I wonder though if immunosuppressants would even be needed IF we could just get a new supply every so often once their level is reduced to some minimal threshold.
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I agree with @TiaG while this is promising to move towards a full cure it will have to come in two phases.
- Address the autoimmune disease
- Address recovery of beta cells
I agree with the 10-15 year timeline for this but the silver lining is that beta cell proliferation will also be of benefit to type 2 diabetics which is a 10x size market so the funding will be there as soon as there is compelling evidence that this (or a derived technique) can be taken through clinical trials to market.
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