Brian Shelton’s life was governed by type 1 Diabetes. when his blood sugar fell, he will lose consciousness Warning, He banged his motorcycle against the wall. He fainted in a customer’s yard while delivering mail. After that episode, his boss asked him to retire after a quarter century in the postal service. He was 57 years old.
Earlier this year, his ex-wife, Cindy Shelton, saw a call for people with type 1 diabetes to participate in a trial by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The company was testing a treatment developed for decades by a scientist who vowed to find it Treatment After her children got sick. Shelton was the first patient. On June 29, he received an infusion of cells grown from stem cells, but his body lacked the same amount as insulin-making pancreas cells. Now his body automatically regulates insulin and blood sugar levels. Shelton, now 64, may be the first to be cured of the disease with a new treatment that experts dare to hope help may come to many of the 1.5 million Americans living with type 1. Diabetes, “It’s a whole new life,” Shelton said.
Diabetics were baffled but urged caution. The study is ongoing and will take five years, involving 17 people with type 1 diabetes. It is not intended as a treatment for the more common type 2 diabetes. “We’ve been looking for something like this to happen for decades,” said Dr. Iral Hirsch, a diabetes specialist at the University of Washington who was not involved in the study. He wants to see the results, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, be replicated in more people. He also wants to know whether there will be adverse effects and whether the cells will persist for a lifetime or if the treatment has to be repeated. But, he added, “bottom line, it’s an amazing result”.
It all started with the discovery of Doug Melton, a biologist at Harvard University. He never thought about diabetes until 1991 when his 6-month-old son Sam became ill and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. , Type 1 is fatal unless patients receive injections of insulin.
Patients are at risk of becoming blind. People with type 1 diabetes are at risk of amputation and death at night because their blood sugar drops during sleep. Over time, his daughter Emma, who was four years older than Sam, also got the disease when she was 14 years old.
The only cure is a pancreas transplant or the transplantation of insulin-producing cell groups of the pancreas, known as islet cells, from the pancreas of an organ donor. But the lack of organs makes this approach impossible. Melton began studying diabetes, determined to find a cure. He turned to embryonic stem cells, which have the potential to become any cell in the body. Their goal was to convert them into islet cells to treat patients.
The challenge was to figure out which sequence of chemical messages would convert the stem cells into insulin-secreting islet cells. The work involved discovering how islets are formed in the pancreas and using embryonic stem cells to become islets. After years when nothing worked, a small team of researchers made a breakthrough in 2014. They put a dye in the liquid where the stem cells were growing. If the cells make insulin the liquid will turn blue. After waiting for hours, a researcher noticed a pale blue color that got darker and darker. The team was excited. For the first time, they created working pancreatic islet cells from embryonic stem cells.
Earlier this year, his ex-wife, Cindy Shelton, saw a call for people with type 1 diabetes to participate in a trial by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The company was testing a treatment developed for decades by a scientist who vowed to find it Treatment After her children got sick. Shelton was the first patient. On June 29, he received an infusion of cells grown from stem cells, but his body lacked the same amount as insulin-making pancreas cells. Now his body automatically regulates insulin and blood sugar levels. Shelton, now 64, may be the first to be cured of the disease with a new treatment that experts dare to hope help may come to many of the 1.5 million Americans living with type 1. Diabetes, “It’s a whole new life,” Shelton said.
Diabetics were baffled but urged caution. The study is ongoing and will take five years, involving 17 people with type 1 diabetes. It is not intended as a treatment for the more common type 2 diabetes. “We’ve been looking for something like this to happen for decades,” said Dr. Iral Hirsch, a diabetes specialist at the University of Washington who was not involved in the study. He wants to see the results, which have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, be replicated in more people. He also wants to know whether there will be adverse effects and whether the cells will persist for a lifetime or if the treatment has to be repeated. But, he added, “bottom line, it’s an amazing result”.
It all started with the discovery of Doug Melton, a biologist at Harvard University. He never thought about diabetes until 1991 when his 6-month-old son Sam became ill and was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. , Type 1 is fatal unless patients receive injections of insulin.
Patients are at risk of becoming blind. People with type 1 diabetes are at risk of amputation and death at night because their blood sugar drops during sleep. Over time, his daughter Emma, who was four years older than Sam, also got the disease when she was 14 years old.
The only cure is a pancreas transplant or the transplantation of insulin-producing cell groups of the pancreas, known as islet cells, from the pancreas of an organ donor. But the lack of organs makes this approach impossible. Melton began studying diabetes, determined to find a cure. He turned to embryonic stem cells, which have the potential to become any cell in the body. Their goal was to convert them into islet cells to treat patients.
The challenge was to figure out which sequence of chemical messages would convert the stem cells into insulin-secreting islet cells. The work involved discovering how islets are formed in the pancreas and using embryonic stem cells to become islets. After years when nothing worked, a small team of researchers made a breakthrough in 2014. They put a dye in the liquid where the stem cells were growing. If the cells make insulin the liquid will turn blue. After waiting for hours, a researcher noticed a pale blue color that got darker and darker. The team was excited. For the first time, they created working pancreatic islet cells from embryonic stem cells.
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