Latest news with #TrevorReichman
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Diabetic Woman No Longer Needs Insulin After Single Dose of Experimental Stem Cells
A Canadian woman with type 1 diabetes spent nearly a decade dependent on her glucose monitor and insulin shots — but after a single dose of manufactured stem cells implanted into her liver, she's now free. In an interview with CTV, 36-year-old Amanda Smith of London, Ontario described how it felt to be part of such a groundbreaking experiment that has allowed her body to once again produce its own insulin. "I remember, like, being scared and excited," Smith said of the study, "and it's history now." Although things are improving for type 1 diabetics, whose pancreases cannot produce their own insulin, the condition still requires ample maintenance and most often results in at least 10 to 12 years being taken off one's life. Diagnosed at 25 with late-onset juvenile diabetes, the woman said that the prognosis for the disease always felt like a "death sentence." "The end is always some sort of complication with diabetes," Smith said. After enrolling in the stem cell study, which is the subject of a new paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, all that changed for the Ontario woman. Smith and 11 other participants on both sides of the border were implanted with special embryonic stem cells, which were altered to grow in the liver and transform into a hormone-producing array of cells that secrete insulin the way a non-diabetic's pancreas does. Of that study cohort, 10 of the 12 stopped needing insulin shots for at least a year — and according to Trevor Reichman, the surgical director of the University Health Network in Toronto's diabetic transplant program and lead author of the paper, the study's "biological replacements" took hold in seconds. "In the liver, they're sensing a patient's blood glucose level, and they're secreting the appropriate hormone," Reichman said of the stem cell implants. "Essentially, it's the same as your native... cells would function." Incredible as these results are, there is a catch: to keep the stem cells working, patients must take immune-suppressing medications so their bodies don't reject the implanted cells — which means they've become more susceptible than most to illness. (Charlbi Dean Kriek, the star of 2022's "Triangle of Sadness," had been on immunosuppressants for a decade following a spleen removal when she died of an infection soon after the film came out.) For Smith, who on August 1 will celebrate her two-year implant-iversary, swapping quality of life for her old insulin shots and the threat of diabetic comas was a no-brainer — even if it means she's more vulnerable to sickness. "Taking a couple of pills three times a day is nothing," she said of her medication regimen. "I take it with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's easy." Still, such immunosuppression is no joke. As Reichman told CTV, one of the study cohort patients died, and the culprit may well have been an illness they caught while on said immunosuppressants — which is why the next phase of research will be into stem cell implants that the body won't reject. More on diabetes: RFK Jr. Surprised to Learn He'd Cut a Grant For Youth Diabetes Research
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New Treatment May Cure Severe Type 1 Diabetes, Study Finds
A dozen volunteers with severe type 1 diabetes showed clear improvements in their condition 12 months after receiving a revolutionary stem cell treatment, with all but two dropping their insulin therapy altogether. The phase 1/phase 2 clinical trial results provide hope for the 8.4 million people around the world with type 1 diabetes; an autoimmune condition where the immune system damages insulin-producing cells. While more extensive studies are required to see how long the benefits of the treatment can last, the new therapy developed by Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals provides strong evidence that it's possible to replace the body's lost insulin production using infusions of stem cells. Related: People with type 1 diabetes are dependent on a precarious balance of insulin therapy for their whole lives. If their insulin drops too low, cells are unable to make use of the sugar in their bloodstream, leading to a buildup that can damage organs. If insulin is too high, patients are plunged into hypoglycemia, which can result in a loss of consciousness, seizures, coma, or death. The pancreas's islet cells are responsible for maintaining most of our bodies' insulin levels. Donor transplants of healthy versions of these cells have shown promise in treating type 1 diabetes in the past, but multiple donors are required, and donors are rare. So University of Toronto surgeon Trevor Reichman and colleagues infused 12 patients with islet cells derived from human stem cells in a treatment known as zimislecel. The patients also received immunosuppressive treatment before and after their zimislecel infusion. The islets not only produced insulin inside their bodies, but they did so at safe levels, reducing the patients' dependence on costly doses of insulin. "These findings showed that zimislecel islet cells were functional and self-regulated appropriately," the researchers write in their paper. The mild to moderate side-effects, including decreased kidney function and the anticipated drop in immune cells, were all linked with the immunosuppressive therapy. Sadly, two additional participants died during the trial; one from an infection arising from surgery and the other from complications due to an unrelated condition. As there were no serious adverse events attributed to the new islet cell therapy, the clinical trials are have progressed into phase 3. "These findings provide evidence that pancreatic islets can be effectively produced from pluripotent stem cells and used to treat type 1 diabetes," Reichman and team conclude. This research was published in NEJM. Scientists Identify New Blood Group, And It's The World's Rarest Extreme Heat Wave Scorches The US: Here's How You Can Stay Safe Your Brain Has a Hidden Rhythm, And It May Reveal How Smart You Are
Straits Times
21-06-2025
- Health
- Straits Times
People with severe diabetes in US are cured in small trial of new drug
The experimental treatment involves stem cells that scientists prodded to turn into pancreatic islet cells, which regulate blood glucose levels. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PEXELS People with severe diabetes in US are cured in small trial of new drug A single infusion of a stem cell-based treatment may have cured 10 out of 12 people with the most severe form of Type 1 diabetes. One year later, these 10 patients no longer need insulin. The other two patients need much lower doses. The experimental treatment, called zimislecel and made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston, involves stem cells that scientists prodded to turn into pancreatic islet cells, which regulate blood glucose levels. The new islet cells were infused and reached the pancreas, where they took up residence. The study was presented on June 20 at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association and published online by The New England Journal of Medicine. 'It's trailblazing work,' said Dr Mark Anderson, professor and director of the diabetes center at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. 'Being free of insulin is life changing, who was not involved in the study,' he said. Vertex, like other drug companies, declined to announce the treatment's cost before the Food and Drug Administration approves it. A Vertex spokesperson said the company had data only on the population it studied so it could not yet say whether the drug would help others with Type 1 diabetes. About 2 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, which is caused when the immune system destroys islet cells. A subset of islet cells, the beta cells, secrete insulin. Without insulin, glucose cannot enter cells. Patients with Type 1 must inject carefully calibrated doses of the hormone to substitute for the insulin their body is missing. Type 1 is different from the more common Type 2 diabetes, which usually occurs later in life. Controlling insulin levels is a constant, often costly effort. Elevated blood sugar levels can damage the heart, kidneys, eyes and nerves. But if levels fall too low, people can feel shaky, pass out or have seizures. The patients in the study are among the estimated 30 per cent with a complication of Type 1 diabetes – hypoglycemic unawareness. Those with the condition have no warning when their glucose levels are falling precipitously. They lack the normal signs like shakiness or sweating that can signal a need for glucose. Patients with hypoglycemic unawareness can suddenly pass out, have seizures or even die. It's a frightening way of life, said Dr Trevor Reichman, director of the pancreas and islet transplant program at University Health Network, a hospital in Toronto, and first author of the study. 'You worry all day, every day where your glucose is and what you eat and when you exercise,' he added. Patients in the study began to need less insulin within a few months of being infused with new islet cells, and most stopped needing the hormone altogether at about six months, Dr Reichman said. He added that patients' episodes of hypoglycemia went away within the first 90 days of treatment. If the study continues to show positive results, the company expects to submit an application to the FDA in 2026. 'For the short term, this looks promising' for severely affected patients like those in the study,' said Dr Irl B. Hirsch, a diabetes expert at the University of Washington who was not involved in the study. But patients in the trial had to stay on drugs to prevent the immune system from destroying the new cells. Suppressing the immune system, he said, increases the risk of infections and, over the long term, can increase the risk of cancer. 'The argument is this immunosuppression is not as dangerous as what we typically use for kidneys, hearts and lungs, but we won't know that definitely for many years,' Dr Hirsch said. Patients may have to take the immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of their lives, the Vertex spokesperson said. The treatment is the culmination of work that began more than 25 years ago when a Harvard researcher, Dr Doug Melton, vowed to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes. His 6-month-old boy developed the disease and, then, so did his adolescent daughter. His passion was to find a way to help them and other patients. He began, he said, with an 'unwavering belief that science can solve the most difficult problems'. It took 20 years of painstaking, repetitive, frustrating work by Dr Melton and a team of about 15 people to find the right chemical cocktail to turn stem cells into islet cells. He estimated that Harvard and others spent US$50 million (S$64 million) on the research. Dr Peter Butler, a professor of medicine at UCLA and a consultant to Vertex, said he was awed by the achievement of the Harvard team. 'The fact that it worked at all is just freaking amazing to me,' he said. 'I can guarantee there were a thousand negative experiments for every positive one.' When Dr Melton finally succeeded, he needed a company to take the discovery into the clinic. He joined Vertex, which took up the challenge. The first patient to get the experimental therapy, Mr Brian Shelton, got an infusion in 2021. He had been plagued by episodes of plummeting blood sugar that made him lose consciousness. Once he crashed his motorcycle into a wall, and another time he passed out in a yard while working his mail delivery route. The infusion cured him, but he died shortly afterward from what Vertex described as dementia symptoms that began before his treatment. Recruitment of the 12 patients in the new report proceeded slowly, Reichman said, because of the strict entry requirements. Some who qualified backed out when they heard they would have to take immunosuppressive drugs, he added. One who joined, Ms Amanda Smith, a 36-year-old nurse in London, Ontario, said she jumped at the chance to enter the trial. Six months after the infusion, she no longer needed insulin. 'It's like a whole new life,' she said. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
