'Like hitting a reset button' Doctors describe Type -1 diabetes cure in clinical trial

Two new drugs may provide a cure for people suffering from Type 1 diabetes.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The drug cocktail has been able to restore the ability of diabetics to produce insulin, researchers claim. The results of the first 17 participant trial saw results that was "like hitting the reset button."

Science is the ultimate tool in the service of God!

The study from the University of Florida has shown that combining the medications Thymoglobulin and Neulasta may help diabitics at least partially regain the ability to produce insulin.

Dr. Michael Haller, a pediatric endocrinologist, compared this cocktail to a game of cops and robbers. First he has to figure out which cells are causing the problems in the immune system which are prohibiting the patient from producing insulin, then he destroys these cells with Thymoglobulin. Next he uses the Neulasta to stimulate the production of new and potentially beneficial immune cells.

"The treatment is almost like trying to hit the reset button on the immune system," said Haller. "We're trying to wipe out the bad cells and stimulate the good cells at the same time."

Haller treated 17 diabetic adults for two weeks with the therapy and then followed them for a year. Eight other patients were given placebos.

By the year's end, the cocktail treated patients had an increased ability to produce insulin, even if they had been diagnosed with the disease for two years.

"The model has mostly been to test therapies aimed at beta cell preservation in people who have just been diagnosed," said Haller. "But obviously, the majority of patients living with the disease have been living with the disease for a long time, so people become disenfranchised from the research process."

Dr. Desmon Shatz, a co-investigator, said that "Despite tremendous strides in our understanding of the natural history of Type 1 diabetes, we are as yet unable to cure and prevent the disease."

"This study is a step in that direction, toward a biological cure," he added.

This study was presented by Haller at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Francisco on June 22.

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