Yes or No CURE... in your lifetime?

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Permalink Reply by Rob Czarnecki on September 3, 2008 at 3:17pm

YES - qualified by saying that I think the cure will be an artificial pancreas, think CGM/pump combo that can remove much of the user input and manage things for us with the ability for a manual override if necessary.

I'd take that and consider it a cure. I don't mind the devices and would love to no longer have to worry about counting the carbs and adjusting the basal rates.

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Permalink Reply by deadislets - keith on October 4, 2008 at 8:49am

NO - I hope I'm wrong but I have to agree with Stuart, but at least partially for different reasons. I won't deny that there is a strong profit motive to keep us all on medication/supplies indefinately, but I also think it is a VERY difficult problem. I took both an anatomy & physiology course as well as a straight physiology course a couple of years ago and when we covered the immune system I was totally impressed with the complexity. I think people like Denise Faustman and the Ioccoca Foundation are sincerely attempting to find a cure, but again its just a very complex problem and it doesn't help that all this has to be studied down at the nanometer scale.

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Permalink Reply by Lara on December 20, 2008 at 2:59pm

No.

I think they might discover a cure for certain complications--something like benfotiamine. But I doubt they will find a cure that would fix all T1's (and not just honeymooners).

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Permalink Reply by miriam shiff on March 7, 2009 at 1:44pm

Nope

Drug companies way too greedy. we will all be dead first. how's that for optimism?

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Permalink Reply by Stuart on March 8, 2009 at 7:23am

Hello Miriam:

I'd say you're "POSITIVE" about the answer ! -grinning playing with her words

Stuart

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Permalink Reply by Scott Strumello on June 27, 2009 at 8:00pm

Type 1 is a multigenic disease, meaning not everyone has the same exact disease etiology. My perspective is that there may be a cure, but it won't necessarily be the same for everyone. At present, there are a number of treatments to address the autoimmune response in T1DM. For example, some have already noted the Faustman/BCG clinical trials, and JDRF has a few including one announced with Bayhill Therapeutics Inc., which just entered into a collaboration agreement with Genentech, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant the Roche Group, to further develop and potentially commercialize a novel antigen-specific immunotherapeutic which aims to reverse the immune response that causes type 1 diabetes. Another is Tolerx, which joined with GlaxoSmithKline (thanks to the JDRF partnership which paired them up) to develop an anti-CD3 antibody to preserve beta cell function in newly-diagnosed patients; MacroGenics, which is developing a similar antibody with Eli Lilly and Company.

On the beta cell regeneration front, there is the INGAP/Exsulin treatment headed into Phase 3 trials, and another from Toronto-based Transition Therapeutics, which has also signed a commercialization agreement for a beta cell regenerative therapy with Eli Lilly & Co. thanks to the JDRF effort.

What we're likely to learn, assuming these things pass all phases of clinical trials successfully, is that some patients could be cured, but others may relapse into diabetic state. The immune system is complex, and we may find that what works for some may not work for everyone. But the more they learn, they may be able to modify immuno-modulation therapies to work in different groups of people.

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Permalink Reply by Sheila Green on July 1, 2009 at 5:57am

NO - just too confusing...no-two people the same - every individual different...
Sheila 55 and counting

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Permalink Reply by Gustavo Adolfo Villar on July 1, 2009 at 9:52am

I agree with your perspective Scott ("there may be a cure") because of the work being done, especially the treatments to address the autoinmune response in T1DM. Even if it's just a "fix" or "patch" to modify your autoinmune system so it stops attacking your insulin producing cells, that would be a cure!
Gustavo

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Permalink Reply by Stuart on August 4, 2009 at 7:48pm

Hello Scott:

Wow... that is a lot of fascinating information. It will take days, months to explore all of your references deeply.
Forgive me, do you believe there will be a cure of YOUR specific disease, within your lifetime?

Stuart

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Permalink Reply by Sheila Green on July 1, 2009 at 5:45am

NO - 55 years and counting

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Permalink Reply by Suzanne on July 5, 2009 at 9:14am

No. After 23 years and the promise of "it will be cured in the next 5 years," I just don't believe it will happen in my lifetime.

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