Josh's "Possible Cures for Type-1 in the News (Early Feb)"

It is that time.

Time to recommend reading Josh Levy. Once again I find myself spellbound by his blog and cautiously optimistic. Optimistic not about any give treatment necessarily but about the level of research and diversity of approaches and that somewhere in all of it there may be better treatments, partial cures and maybe... cures.

This month Josh writes about Trial of Polyclonal Tregs. There are immune regulatory cells. The idea is they take these from a person, make a bunch more in the lab and put them back in hope of restoring increasing the regulatory balance and preserving beta cell function. 

Learning about that is cool enough but what sets Josh apart for me is the detail of his discussion. He considers what constitutes remission for researchers. It is not necessarily what we would thing as PWDs. For researchers is is using half the insulin than otherwise, not none. Also Josh has a discussion of the ethics of research and the participation of children in the studies. This matters if a study is looking at the early stages just after diagnosis as there are far fewer adults available with recently diagnosed T1D than kids. This is an important conversation and I am thrilled to see it brought up in thoughtful manner. 

There is also a conversation of clinical trials on the cocktail mix of Cyclosporine and Lansoprazole. One to stop the autoimmune attack and the other to improve beta cell production. 

Science matters, understanding it does too and I think Josh does a better job month in and month out at reporting on the science of cures than any other single source I know.  As is usually the case my summaries of his blog don't do it justice. The best way I can think to say thanks is to I highly recommend  clicking over and having a look for your self.

Oh and while you are there sign up for his email updates.

http://cureresearch4type1diabetes.blogspot.com/2013/02/possible-cures-for-type-1-in-news-early.html

Josh's January Update on T1D Cure Research

Regular YDMV readers know I am a big fan and cheerleader for Josh Levy's site http://cureresearch4type1diabetes.blogspot.com. I like that someone smarter than me reads all these studies and like even more the reviews and discussions.

His January 2013 update is here: http://cureresearch4type1diabetes.blogspot.com/2013/01/possible-cures-for-type-1-in-news.html

Topics covered in detail include:

Kamada Alpha-1 Antitrypsin (AAT). 

This study is important for a couple of reasons.  First, because of the number of AAT clinical trials. I know of a five AAT clinical trials aimed at type-1 diabetes going on now.  That's a lot; more than any other single drug.

LCT Updates  

LCT is developing an encapsulated pig beta cell cure for type-1 diabetes. The coating allows blood sugar in, and insulin out, but does not allow the body's immune system to attack the beta cells. It also allows nutrients in and waste products out. This allows the beta cells to naturally grow and to react to the body's sugar by generating insulin which goes into the body's blood system. 

Update from Scott King on Islet Sheet Project 

An Islet Sheet is a specific beta cell encapsulation technique, similar to what LCT is trying to do.  Because Islet Sheets have not yet started human trials, I don't follow this research very closely.  However, I know others are very interested in it, and Scott King posted an update on his blog, which you can read here:http://www.hanumanmedicalfoundation.org/blog/2012/11/26/signal-breakthrough-islet-sheets-thrive-in-pig/