Dr Ricordi thinks that in the next three to seven years there will be a cure for Type 1 patients. http://www.miamiherald.com/living/health-fitness/article4060679.html
Does anybody know why islet transplants are used only for serious/uncontrollable cases? If they are performed anyways, why are cannot they be performed for regular cases as well? If the only concern is that they have to be done every two years, I think some people may take that to depart from injections.
' Ricordi thinks that in the next three to seven years there will be a cure for Type1 patients. “It’s not a prediction — it’s a promise that I make to patients. We will defeat this disease for sure,” Ricordi said. “Depending on how many obstacles we hit, and regulatory complexities and cost, it could take more than 10 years, depending, but we’re getting there.” There has been so much progress in the past three years … that we hope will deliver something substantial ' OK, 3 to 7, or more than 10, which one?. No mention of what the "so much progress" is, or what's the substantial something expected to be delivered. So, again another expression of good wishes -thank you for them-, but looks to me rather in the air, like the cures for the mice community. Don't get me wrong, I thank every piece of news that is posted here, but this article looks more like a filler rather than telling something specific . "Good things are going to happen anytime soon! Or perhaps not too soon". So far, when it comes to cures, I'd summarize it as: Monoclonals have very limited effectiveness, the encapsulations seem not to do to well on the oxygenation of the beta cells, transplants need immuno-suppressants, and the fancy proteins/drugs do not quite work. And about Dr. Zhao re-education no one knows the true outcome nor have I not seen yet an accurate explanation of what it does (besides using the word re-education a lot). So, when it comes to cures I think we are at the same stage as 10 years ago, with no truly amazing breakthrough discovery so far.
It was a puff piece for sure! It looked like it was written by the marketing department. However, coincidentally, or perhaps not, on 10/21 both Viacyte and Beta O2 implanted their respective devices into two volunteers; one in California and one in Sweden. So today, there are at least two human beings , not mice, walking around with potential cures implanted inside of them. It would be so much worse if nobody was trying, but smart people, like Ricardi, are trying.
In addition to the issue with anti-rejection drugs (thus the efforts to use encapsulated islets, such as Viacyte is attempting), the lack of donor islets is a huge issue. Though it was about 10 years ago, I went to a talk by Lois Jovanovic of the Sansum Diabetes Institute. She explained that when people die and their organs are harvested, doctors take the heart first, then other organs (I do not remember the order). Way down the line is the pancreas. Often, by the time they get to the pancreas, it is essentially not usable. My take away was to write on my organ donor card, "Please take pancreas first." I believe it was also in that same talk, or maybe one way back in 2000 by Dr. James Shapiro (pioneer of the Edmonton Protocol), where I learned that doctors need several pancreases (pancreati?) to harvest enough islets for a transplant. This procedure is related to what Dr. Ricordi developed many years ago (the Ricordi Chamber - see http://www.cellr4.org/article/128). This is a very simplistic answer from someone who is just a mom. Perhaps there are others who can provide more detailed information/commentary. BTW, for Sarah: On Saturday, we were doing some organizing and I came across some copies of the Capitol Edition of the JDF newsletters for which Jeff was the editor (1994) and they had stories/ads about the 90s being the "Decade of the Cure." Personally, I would not bet on 3-7 years; it's just way more complicated that experts thought.
