7 ms·

Type 1 diabetes reversed by new cell transplantation technique

515 points by 01-_- 2y ago

Trasmatta 2y ago
> To prevent islet rejection, immune-suppressing drugs are given over the long term. This makes it a non starter. Immunosuppressants are generally considered a worse quality of life than insulin treatment. That's why pancreas transplants are generally only done for type 1 diabetics if they are already on immunosuppressants.
- bluSCALE4 2y ago
  [flagged]
- Terr_ 2y ago
  I'm hopeful that someday we'll have a good system for "caging" cells to prevent an immune response (in either direction) while also permitting the visitors to sustain themselves with blood nutrients and regulate hormones or clean waste. Sort of like the role of the blood-brain barrier, or maybe a placenta.
  - Trasmatta 2y ago
    Yes! I think there was some work being done with a islet transplant like that. I'm not sure of the details though - it's probably a long way off, if it works.
  - Gibbon1 2y ago
    What'd be interesting would being able to shut down specific auto-immune responses. Currently most of what we have are hammers of one sort or another.
    - Terr_ 2y ago
      I am of the glum opinion that the hideously interwoven nature of our immune system is at least partly a security feature rather than an engineering flaw. That said, we might still learn from the success of its contemporary attackers, who haven't been slacking over the past millions of years either.
- pixl97 2y ago
  Yep. The hard, if not kear impossible part will be just resetting the one part of the immune system attacking the islets without turning off or resetting the immune system.
  - mlhpdx 2y ago
    The promising part here is that someday it will be possible to take stem cells from a patient and specialize them to islet cells. Similar to what they’re doing here with vascular cells. It’s far too expensive at the moment, but ultimately the process will be improved and refined, and the costs will come down. At least that’s my hope for a cure.
  - im3w1l 2y ago
    Easiest method may be to nuke the immune system and put a new one in place. As the immune system consists of several parts it may be sufficient to just replace one of them.
    - jajko 2y ago
      Sounds like 22nd century tech at least. Good to dream of, not practical even for very young here to think it would help them
      - throwawaymaths 2y ago
        not really? this is basically already deployed as a cure for AIDS (with an N in the single digits iirc). the issue is not technical, it's that it's such an extreme solution that without more safety data it's ethically a hard sell for a condition like diabetes.
- forgotpwagain 2y ago
  Lots of biotech companies are working on immunosuppressant-free islet-equivalent transplantation. Two examples off the top of my head: Sana recently announced islet cell transplantation without immunosuppression (press release: https://ir.sana.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sana-biotechnology-announces-positive-clinical-results-type-1 https://ir.sana.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sana-... ) and Vertex (ongoing trial: https://www.breakthrought1d.org/news-and-updates/vertex-launches-pivotal-trial-for-stem-cell-derived-islet-therapy/ https://www.breakthrought1d.org/news-and-updates/vertex-laun... ).
- markdog12 2y ago
  Note this is for the current common approach, not the new approach.
- bradleyy 2y ago
  As a T1D: can confirm. Taking insulin is a hassle, but definitely not "I'd rather take immunosuppressants". I'm having a hard time even contextualizing how much worse that is.
- overview 2y ago
  This makes the vascular implants produced by Humacyte more interesting. They’re made of cells which aren’t recognized by the immune system. Humacyte is in the beginning stages of seeing if they can fit beta cells into the produced vascular implants, while remaining undetected by the immune system.
WindyMiller 2y ago
...IN MICE
- mlhpdx 2y ago
  And not just mice, but mice engineered with “T1D like” conditions. Human testing too early is certainly undesirable but these studies with mice, while necessary and important, are nothing newsworthy for the general public (but good for fundraising for follow up work).
- _carbyau_ 2y ago
  Yeah! How amazing is that! Reversing type 1 diabetes anywhere is amazing. A way to go until it becomes an option for humans. And then way more to go until it becomes a preferred option. But this is great news.
  - jfengel 2y ago
    Not if it requires immune suppressants. They can already transplant whole pancreases. They rarely do because the resulting lifetime of immune suppression is worse than the quite effective insulin injections. Any research could pay big benefits eventually but this is far from "great news". It's a step forward along a path that is actually well behind the others.
    - energy123 2y ago
      Rapamycin increases lifespan of mice more than any other known compound.
      - nahsra 2y ago
        Longevity benefits are seen at a much lower dose. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dose_makes_the_poison https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dose_makes_the_poison
    - _carbyau_ 2y ago
      I think you and I have a different approach to science. I see research as not entirely linear and think that multiple paths should be funded. Most paths won't be "the definitive answer" but add capability, or definitively rule out an approach, that can be used in other scenarios. TheFineArticle shows a different path to the others and they made a great step on it - that seems like money well spent to me. What I get from reading your post is that it's some kind of race and only the one currently winning should be lauded. I'm not sure if that is what you intend to communicate though.
karim79 2y ago
So it's a trade-off between increased risk of cancer[0] and the consequences of type 1 diabetes? Doesn't sound like a fun trade-off but I don't know anything. [0] https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/immunosuppression#:~:text=Many%20people%20who%20receive%20organ,off%20infections%20that%20cause%20cancer. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/i...
- Trasmatta 2y ago
  Type 1 diabetic here: you're right, it's a bad tradeoff. We already can do pancreas transplants for T1D, but the reason it's very uncommon is that immunosuppressants are a very bad tradeoff. Insulin treatment is preferred in the vast majority of cases. Stuff like this will never be a breakthrough until it doesn't need immunosuppressants. The best advancements in diabetes treatment will most likely continue to be on closed loop artificial pancreas systems.
  - karim79 2y ago
    I'm sorry for your plight and I genuinely hope there will be a much more tenable solution in the near future.
  - nextos 2y ago
    Insulin-specific immunotherapies are currently under development. We will soon be able to restore tolerance to insulin, and other pancreatic antigens such as GAD-65, without the need for broad immunosupressants. Ideally, this should stop β cell destruction and conversion to T1D from auto-antibody positive status, as well as facilitate islet transplants with minimal side effects for those that are already T1D patients.
  - riebalas 2y ago
    I wouldn't call closed loop systems much of an advancement... Sure, it doses insulin automatically based off of CGM data, but it's barely any better than just injecting yourself. Cons even outweight the pros for some - being constantly attached to a device is no fun. And the slugishness of exogenous insulin (both: the way it is injected and its time of action) diminishes any attempts to achieve precision using CGM data and algorithms in controlling diabetes. Not to mention CGM data isn't that accurate/rapid enough also. All in all, it's just not efficient, calling these systems 'artificial pancreas' is more of a marketing gimmick than reality, thus why a proper cure is needed.
hereme888 2y ago
The author claimed no competing interests, yet his research is used for the patents. We'll see how it plays out in the real world after all the stardust settles.
cassidius 2y ago
More groundbreaking research funded by the NIH. It's sad to think about how much the US is going to lose with the arbitrary slashing and burning and purging.
- asciii 2y ago
  Don't worry they'll take credit for saving this
  - kleiba 2y ago
    Are you referring to the recent Ebola prevention-related cuts? https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/27/g-s1-50929/elon-musk-ebola-usaid https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/27/g-s1-...
    - ck2 2y ago
      The most frustrating thing is they all get away with endless daily lies and just move onto the next subject, NIH might never recover, certainly not this decade. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/elon-musk-ebola-prevention-usaid-doge/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/elon-musk... > Hours after Musk asserted that USAID had restored its Ebola prevention efforts, the agency informed several organizations working with the U.S. government to prevent the spread of the virus overseas that their contracts had been terminated > organizations — which included UNICEF, which had been working with USAID on Ebola prevention in Uganda and other countries — were among thousands of organizations affected by the Trump administration’s move to cancel foreign-assistance contracts
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- zo1 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - solarengineer 2y ago
jablongo 2y ago
If you pair this with genetically engineered hypoimmune islet cells to avoid needing to suppress immune system you could have a viable cure. https://ir.sana.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sana-biotechnology-announces-positive-clinical-results-type-1 https://ir.sana.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sana-...
- y-curious 2y ago
  Yes, immunity is the big problem. You probably need to replenish the islets either way. Also, I don't think doctors would be content giving someone that isn't suppressed this without loads of research.
- gsf_emergency_2 2y ago
  Yes! You can also induce islet cells from the patient's own stem cells: https://stemcellres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13287-024-04036-0 https://stemcellres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s1328...
  - tech2 2y ago
    Except, a diabetic's immune system already wants to kill those too...
    - gsf_emergency_2 2y ago
      True, Sana above are attempting to extend their gene engineering ("HIP") to stem cells as well >apply the HIP technology to develop therapeutic candidates at scale, including both pluripotent stem cells and donor-derived allogeneic CAR T cells.
ThrowawayTestr 2y ago
Awesome. Hopefully when this is perfected they'll be enough pancreases to cure everyone. My pancreas is ear marked for my sibling should I become an eligible donor.
davidelettieri 2y ago
Also impact of diet should not be underestimated https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5357144/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5357144/ edit: at least on mices for now
- aktau 2y ago
  I've experienced quasi-remission twice now. Both times when I got so sick from food in a foreign country that I couldn't eat for days (and had no appetite for it either). I lived on water. Afterwards, for 1-2 weeks, I did not require insulin (while eating a lot). I used to think it was due to the pills they gave me there, or perhaps due to the bacteria (or virus?) causing some strange temporal abating of auto-immune response and regrowth of beta-cells. But seeing this is making me reconsider that (I was doubting the effect of the medicine since I took some home and took it in a healthy state but did not get the good effects).
  - dsaavy 2y ago
    I've been Type 1 for 20+ years and have measurable remissions based on blood tests. Low level functioning of pancreas again. The thing that moved the needle for me was fasting + ultra running (which from my understanding implements a fasting-like response by the body in some ways). Interesting that not eating for a while correlated with what seems like increased pancreatic activity...
    - davidelettieri 2y ago
      If you are interested, Valter Longo in a fairly recent and interesting podcast https://youtu.be/ZwdhdevxlRg?si=sDknOzmwx7Nk_wQR https://youtu.be/ZwdhdevxlRg?si=sDknOzmwx7Nk_wQR
    - JayDustheadz 2y ago
      How long did you fast for? Or did you do intermittent fasting?
      - 2y ago
doubtfuluser 2y ago
in mice
whostolemyhat 2y ago
5 years away?
pepsi-not-coke 2y ago
great, now let's cure type 2, which gets much less attention
- riebalas 2y ago
  I have great news for you: you can cure it on your own, just get off donuts and move your ass. I'm actually jealous of type 2's.
  - k4rli 2y ago
    Finally with this and Ozempic, I can get diabetes and be fat, and then restart the process again.
  - pepsi-not-coke 2y ago
    [flagged]
smm11 2y ago
Cool! Now fix Type 2, which is managed by reducing sugar intake. No, wait, just take a pill!

515 points by 01-_- 2y ago

> To prevent islet rejection, immune-suppressing drugs are given over the long term. This makes it a non starter. Immunosuppressants are generally considered a worse quality of life than insulin treatment. That's why pancreas transplants are generally only done for type 1 diabetics if they are already on immunosuppressants.

bluSCALE4 2y ago
[flagged]
Terr_ 2y ago
I'm hopeful that someday we'll have a good system for "caging" cells to prevent an immune response (in either direction) while also permitting the visitors to sustain themselves with blood nutrients and regulate hormones or clean waste. Sort of like the role of the blood-brain barrier, or maybe a placenta.
- Trasmatta 2y ago
  Yes! I think there was some work being done with a islet transplant like that. I'm not sure of the details though - it's probably a long way off, if it works.
- Gibbon1 2y ago
  What'd be interesting would being able to shut down specific auto-immune responses. Currently most of what we have are hammers of one sort or another.
  - Terr_ 2y ago
    I am of the glum opinion that the hideously interwoven nature of our immune system is at least partly a security feature rather than an engineering flaw. That said, we might still learn from the success of its contemporary attackers, who haven't been slacking over the past millions of years either.
pixl97 2y ago
Yep. The hard, if not kear impossible part will be just resetting the one part of the immune system attacking the islets without turning off or resetting the immune system.
- mlhpdx 2y ago
  The promising part here is that someday it will be possible to take stem cells from a patient and specialize them to islet cells. Similar to what they’re doing here with vascular cells. It’s far too expensive at the moment, but ultimately the process will be improved and refined, and the costs will come down. At least that’s my hope for a cure.
- im3w1l 2y ago
  Easiest method may be to nuke the immune system and put a new one in place. As the immune system consists of several parts it may be sufficient to just replace one of them.
  - jajko 2y ago
    Sounds like 22nd century tech at least. Good to dream of, not practical even for very young here to think it would help them
    - throwawaymaths 2y ago
      not really? this is basically already deployed as a cure for AIDS (with an N in the single digits iirc). the issue is not technical, it's that it's such an extreme solution that without more safety data it's ethically a hard sell for a condition like diabetes.
forgotpwagain 2y ago
Lots of biotech companies are working on immunosuppressant-free islet-equivalent transplantation. Two examples off the top of my head: Sana recently announced islet cell transplantation without immunosuppression (press release: https://ir.sana.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sana-biotechnology-announces-positive-clinical-results-type-1 https://ir.sana.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sana-... ) and Vertex (ongoing trial: https://www.breakthrought1d.org/news-and-updates/vertex-launches-pivotal-trial-for-stem-cell-derived-islet-therapy/ https://www.breakthrought1d.org/news-and-updates/vertex-laun... ).
markdog12 2y ago
Note this is for the current common approach, not the new approach.
bradleyy 2y ago
As a T1D: can confirm. Taking insulin is a hassle, but definitely not "I'd rather take immunosuppressants". I'm having a hard time even contextualizing how much worse that is.
overview 2y ago
This makes the vascular implants produced by Humacyte more interesting. They’re made of cells which aren’t recognized by the immune system. Humacyte is in the beginning stages of seeing if they can fit beta cells into the produced vascular implants, while remaining undetected by the immune system.

WindyMiller 2y ago

...IN MICE

mlhpdx 2y ago
And not just mice, but mice engineered with “T1D like” conditions. Human testing too early is certainly undesirable but these studies with mice, while necessary and important, are nothing newsworthy for the general public (but good for fundraising for follow up work).
_carbyau_ 2y ago
Yeah! How amazing is that! Reversing type 1 diabetes anywhere is amazing. A way to go until it becomes an option for humans. And then way more to go until it becomes a preferred option. But this is great news.
- jfengel 2y ago
  Not if it requires immune suppressants. They can already transplant whole pancreases. They rarely do because the resulting lifetime of immune suppression is worse than the quite effective insulin injections. Any research could pay big benefits eventually but this is far from "great news". It's a step forward along a path that is actually well behind the others.
  - energy123 2y ago
    Rapamycin increases lifespan of mice more than any other known compound.
    - nahsra 2y ago
      Longevity benefits are seen at a much lower dose. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dose_makes_the_poison https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dose_makes_the_poison
  - _carbyau_ 2y ago
    I think you and I have a different approach to science. I see research as not entirely linear and think that multiple paths should be funded. Most paths won't be "the definitive answer" but add capability, or definitively rule out an approach, that can be used in other scenarios. TheFineArticle shows a different path to the others and they made a great step on it - that seems like money well spent to me. What I get from reading your post is that it's some kind of race and only the one currently winning should be lauded. I'm not sure if that is what you intend to communicate though.

karim79 2y ago

So it's a trade-off between increased risk of cancer[0] and the consequences of type 1 diabetes? Doesn't sound like a fun trade-off but I don't know anything. [0] https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/immunosuppression#:~:text=Many%20people%20who%20receive%20organ,off%20infections%20that%20cause%20cancer. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/i...

Trasmatta 2y ago
Type 1 diabetic here: you're right, it's a bad tradeoff. We already can do pancreas transplants for T1D, but the reason it's very uncommon is that immunosuppressants are a very bad tradeoff. Insulin treatment is preferred in the vast majority of cases. Stuff like this will never be a breakthrough until it doesn't need immunosuppressants. The best advancements in diabetes treatment will most likely continue to be on closed loop artificial pancreas systems.
- karim79 2y ago
  I'm sorry for your plight and I genuinely hope there will be a much more tenable solution in the near future.
- nextos 2y ago
  Insulin-specific immunotherapies are currently under development. We will soon be able to restore tolerance to insulin, and other pancreatic antigens such as GAD-65, without the need for broad immunosupressants. Ideally, this should stop β cell destruction and conversion to T1D from auto-antibody positive status, as well as facilitate islet transplants with minimal side effects for those that are already T1D patients.
- riebalas 2y ago
  I wouldn't call closed loop systems much of an advancement... Sure, it doses insulin automatically based off of CGM data, but it's barely any better than just injecting yourself. Cons even outweight the pros for some - being constantly attached to a device is no fun. And the slugishness of exogenous insulin (both: the way it is injected and its time of action) diminishes any attempts to achieve precision using CGM data and algorithms in controlling diabetes. Not to mention CGM data isn't that accurate/rapid enough also. All in all, it's just not efficient, calling these systems 'artificial pancreas' is more of a marketing gimmick than reality, thus why a proper cure is needed.

hereme888 2y ago

The author claimed no competing interests, yet his research is used for the patents. We'll see how it plays out in the real world after all the stardust settles.

cassidius 2y ago

More groundbreaking research funded by the NIH. It's sad to think about how much the US is going to lose with the arbitrary slashing and burning and purging.

asciii 2y ago
Don't worry they'll take credit for saving this
- kleiba 2y ago
  Are you referring to the recent Ebola prevention-related cuts? https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/27/g-s1-50929/elon-musk-ebola-usaid https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/02/27/g-s1-...
  - ck2 2y ago
    The most frustrating thing is they all get away with endless daily lies and just move onto the next subject, NIH might never recover, certainly not this decade. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/elon-musk-ebola-prevention-usaid-doge/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/26/elon-musk... > Hours after Musk asserted that USAID had restored its Ebola prevention efforts, the agency informed several organizations working with the U.S. government to prevent the spread of the virus overseas that their contracts had been terminated > organizations — which included UNICEF, which had been working with USAID on Ebola prevention in Uganda and other countries — were among thousands of organizations affected by the Trump administration’s move to cancel foreign-assistance contracts
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
zo1 2y ago
[flagged]
- solarengineer 2y ago

jablongo 2y ago

If you pair this with genetically engineered hypoimmune islet cells to avoid needing to suppress immune system you could have a viable cure. https://ir.sana.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sana-biotechnology-announces-positive-clinical-results-type-1 https://ir.sana.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sana-...

y-curious 2y ago
Yes, immunity is the big problem. You probably need to replenish the islets either way. Also, I don't think doctors would be content giving someone that isn't suppressed this without loads of research.
gsf_emergency_2 2y ago
Yes! You can also induce islet cells from the patient's own stem cells: https://stemcellres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13287-024-04036-0 https://stemcellres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s1328...
- tech2 2y ago
  Except, a diabetic's immune system already wants to kill those too...
  - gsf_emergency_2 2y ago
    True, Sana above are attempting to extend their gene engineering ("HIP") to stem cells as well >apply the HIP technology to develop therapeutic candidates at scale, including both pluripotent stem cells and donor-derived allogeneic CAR T cells.

ThrowawayTestr 2y ago

Awesome. Hopefully when this is perfected they'll be enough pancreases to cure everyone. My pancreas is ear marked for my sibling should I become an eligible donor.

davidelettieri 2y ago

Also impact of diet should not be underestimated https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5357144/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5357144/ edit: at least on mices for now

aktau 2y ago
I've experienced quasi-remission twice now. Both times when I got so sick from food in a foreign country that I couldn't eat for days (and had no appetite for it either). I lived on water. Afterwards, for 1-2 weeks, I did not require insulin (while eating a lot). I used to think it was due to the pills they gave me there, or perhaps due to the bacteria (or virus?) causing some strange temporal abating of auto-immune response and regrowth of beta-cells. But seeing this is making me reconsider that (I was doubting the effect of the medicine since I took some home and took it in a healthy state but did not get the good effects).
- dsaavy 2y ago
  I've been Type 1 for 20+ years and have measurable remissions based on blood tests. Low level functioning of pancreas again. The thing that moved the needle for me was fasting + ultra running (which from my understanding implements a fasting-like response by the body in some ways). Interesting that not eating for a while correlated with what seems like increased pancreatic activity...
  - davidelettieri 2y ago
    If you are interested, Valter Longo in a fairly recent and interesting podcast https://youtu.be/ZwdhdevxlRg?si=sDknOzmwx7Nk_wQR https://youtu.be/ZwdhdevxlRg?si=sDknOzmwx7Nk_wQR
  - JayDustheadz 2y ago
    How long did you fast for? Or did you do intermittent fasting?
    - 2y ago

doubtfuluser 2y ago

in mice

whostolemyhat 2y ago

5 years away?

pepsi-not-coke 2y ago

great, now let's cure type 2, which gets much less attention

riebalas 2y ago
I have great news for you: you can cure it on your own, just get off donuts and move your ass. I'm actually jealous of type 2's.
- k4rli 2y ago
  Finally with this and Ozempic, I can get diabetes and be fat, and then restart the process again.
- pepsi-not-coke 2y ago
  [flagged]

smm11 2y ago

Cool! Now fix Type 2, which is managed by reducing sugar intake. No, wait, just take a pill!