4 ms·

Chinese scientists develop cure for diabetes, patient insulin free in 3 months

14 points by DocFeind 2y ago

BizarroLand 2y ago
I'm not going to hold my breath but if it does turn out to work this would be huge for millions of people suffering from diabetes.
- hulitu 2y ago
  > this would be huge for millions of people suffering from diabetes. In China. I heard that diabetes treatment in US is quiet expensive. You can just deprive Farma companies of the golden cow, overnight.
  - BizarroLand 2y ago
    If I had diabetes and knew that I could either take pills or insulin or whatever multiple times a day every day for the rest of my life OR I can take a flight to another country, hang out for a few days, get a shot and be at least temporarily completely cured, I will take the flight.
gus_massa 2y ago
This is type 1 diabetes, isn't it?
- vinnyvichy 2y ago
  Nope. Type 2
  - warpspin 2y ago
    Was astonished that this is supposed to refer to type 2 diabetes (would expect "cell therapies" more fitting for type 1), but it seems you are right: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3263878/chinese-scientists-report-world-first-they-cure-patients-diabetes-cell-therapy https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3263878/chin...
    - vinnyvichy 2y ago
      The other counterintuitive thing was that the featured patient is 59 years old-- seemed a bit too old for therapy with your own stem cells but I guess the team was going all in on the shock value https://www.nature.com/articles/s41421-024-00662-3 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41421-024-00662-3
      - warpspin 2y ago
        Thanks for the additional article. Still seems confusing to me. I would not intuitively expect a treatment of pancreatic islets to also solve insulin resistance. More intuitive, with all I know about Diabetes 2 would be that it resets the illness to an earlier stage but does not completely cure it. Must be an individual where the effects of missing insulin production far outweigh any insulin resistance. Or the whole insulin resistance - diabetes 2 connection theory might be wrong.
        vinnyvichy 2y ago
        It's not wrong, but (almost all) T2D arises from insulin resistance through damage to islet beta cell function. Some people with insulin resistance do not develop T2D (because they still have fully functional beta cells) The authors admit they still need to look at T1D. They say: "As for the limitations of this study, we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the residual endogenous islets benefitted from the surgery and acquired functional improvements. Therefore, an increase in sample size and additional trials of T1D patients with complete loss of islet β cells will help draw definitive conclusions on the causative role of E-islets in the achievement of glycemic targets."
    - gus_massa 2y ago
      Exactly. It was "obvious" for me that it was for type 1, but I was wrong.

14 points by DocFeind 2y ago

I'm not going to hold my breath but if it does turn out to work this would be huge for millions of people suffering from diabetes.

hulitu 2y ago
> this would be huge for millions of people suffering from diabetes. In China. I heard that diabetes treatment in US is quiet expensive. You can just deprive Farma companies of the golden cow, overnight.
- BizarroLand 2y ago
  If I had diabetes and knew that I could either take pills or insulin or whatever multiple times a day every day for the rest of my life OR I can take a flight to another country, hang out for a few days, get a shot and be at least temporarily completely cured, I will take the flight.

gus_massa 2y ago

This is type 1 diabetes, isn't it?

vinnyvichy 2y ago
Nope. Type 2
- warpspin 2y ago
  Was astonished that this is supposed to refer to type 2 diabetes (would expect "cell therapies" more fitting for type 1), but it seems you are right: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3263878/chinese-scientists-report-world-first-they-cure-patients-diabetes-cell-therapy https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3263878/chin...
  - vinnyvichy 2y ago
    The other counterintuitive thing was that the featured patient is 59 years old-- seemed a bit too old for therapy with your own stem cells but I guess the team was going all in on the shock value https://www.nature.com/articles/s41421-024-00662-3 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41421-024-00662-3
    - warpspin 2y ago
      Thanks for the additional article. Still seems confusing to me. I would not intuitively expect a treatment of pancreatic islets to also solve insulin resistance. More intuitive, with all I know about Diabetes 2 would be that it resets the illness to an earlier stage but does not completely cure it. Must be an individual where the effects of missing insulin production far outweigh any insulin resistance. Or the whole insulin resistance - diabetes 2 connection theory might be wrong.
      - vinnyvichy 2y ago
        It's not wrong, but (almost all) T2D arises from insulin resistance through damage to islet beta cell function. Some people with insulin resistance do not develop T2D (because they still have fully functional beta cells) The authors admit they still need to look at T1D. They say: "As for the limitations of this study, we cannot completely rule out the possibility that the residual endogenous islets benefitted from the surgery and acquired functional improvements. Therefore, an increase in sample size and additional trials of T1D patients with complete loss of islet β cells will help draw definitive conclusions on the causative role of E-islets in the achievement of glycemic targets."
  - gus_massa 2y ago
    Exactly. It was "obvious" for me that it was for type 1, but I was wrong.