The company said that it has completed the enrollment of 240 patients in a clinical trial of otelixizumab, a drug that aims to help the body’s immune system to “tolerate” insulin-producing cells that it would otherwise mistakenly attack and destroy.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own insulin-producing cells, mistaking them for foreign cells. People need insulin, the hormone that regulates sugar in the blood. People with Type 1 diabetes need to inject the hormone into their body several times each day. 

The company says it could eventually offer an eight-day course of intravenous infusions of the drug for people recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. The treatment could reduce the need for daily insulin shots and helping the patients control their blood sugar levels.

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People with Type 1 diabetes do not produce insulin, the hormone that regulates the amount of sugar in the blood. They are therefore forced to either inject insulin into the body several times a day or receive a steady flow of insulin via an external, battery-powered insulin pump.

The artificial pancreas is a device that attempts to mimic the functionality of a real pancreas by combining insulin pumps, which feed insulin into the body, a continuous glucose monitor that constantly checks blood sugar levels and software that helps the two work together. While a patient with an artificial pancreas will need to wear both an external insulin pump and continuous glucose monitoring device on the body, they will be not have to check their insulin levels or give themselves shots as because the device will release insulin into the body as needed.

The JDRF has been working with academic centers to perfect the artificial pancreas for years. The main hurdle is developing sophisticated software that prevents blood sugar levels from rising too high as well as preventing hypoglycemic events which can be fatal when blood sugar levels fall too low. With this new announcement, the JDRF says it hopes to have a first-generation artificial pancreas ready for regulators to review within four years.   

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The company, Revivivor Inc., and the University of Pittsburgh recently announced that they have successfully ‘cured’ a diabetic laboratory monkey by injecting it with insulin-producing cells, known as islets, from genetically modified pigs. Scientists altered the pigs by giving them a gene that makes a protein found on the surface of human cells. The protein helps to regulate the body’s attack response to foreign bodies.

One monkey in the experiment maintained normal glucose levels and remained diabetes-free for 13 months before researchers voluntarily destroyed the animal in order to study it further. Other monkeys in the study only remained diabetes-free for a number of months.  

Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease in which the body mistakenly attacks healthy insulin-producing cells of the pancreas and destroys them. Insulin is needed to regulate the amount of sugar in the blood and people with Type 1 diabetes need to inject insulin in order to regulate their blood sugar levels.

A company official says the results achieved by Revivicor are the best in the world because previous similar animal trials ‘cured’ monkeys of their diabetes for only six months. However, the ‘cure’ is not a true cure because the monkeys required immunosuppressant drugs, according to the Roanoke Times article.

The drugs are used to prevent the body from destroying the newly transplanted insulin-producing cells. A cure would not require such drugs. However, despite the drugs, which weaken the immune system, the monkeys remained healthy. That may be, in part, due to the fact that the pigs used were genetically altered so that the monkeys would be less likely to reject the cells.

The company, which has ties to the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep back in the 1990s, says that the limited availability of human donors makes harvesting islets from animals ideal. That’s because it would provide a nearly unlimited supply of islets, according to the article.

The company says its plans to submit an application with the Food and Drug Administration to being human trials. It predicts that testing on diabetic humans could begin in two years and run for three to five more years.  

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President Barack Obama lifted Bush-era restrictions on stem cell research last spring. Now, researchers can use taxpayer dollars to conduct research on 13 batches of embryonic stem cells. Additionally, the government says 96 more cell lines are currently under review, and there may be a decision on 20 of them within weeks. Researchers have also said they may ask for approval for another 250 stem cell lines.    

Using these days-old cells in research destroys them, creating a moral dilemma for many. However, these cells can morph into any cells in the body, giving researchers hope they can harness these cells to cure some of the worst diseases currently afflicting the world’s population.

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The study, which WebMD calls one of the most rigorously designed trials to examine breastfeeding’s impact, also shows the longer women breastfeed, the more protection they appear to enjoy.

Researchers with Kaiser Permanente analyzed data on 704 women aged 18 to 30 who were followed for two decades, beginning before their first pregnancy. At the start, none of the women had metabolic syndrome — a constellation of risk factors linked to diabetes, obesity and heart disease — though 120 developed it over the next 20 years.

The results show breastfeeding for longer than nine months was associated with a 56% reduction in risk for developing metabolic syndrome. Among those who developed gestational diabetes during their pregnancies, the risk reduction was 86%.

Even a little as a month or two of breastfeeding seemed to have a benefit, the researchers say.

Earlier studies have suggested that lactating women have healthier blood levels of glucose and lipids in the weeks after delivery. The Kaiser study is the first to measure all components of metabolic syndrome both before pregnancy and after weaning, allowing researchers to examine breastfeeding’s effect on new onset of metabolic syndrome.

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However, a new report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) entitled Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report breaks down the counties, states and regions where diabetes has its strongest foothold on the population. While the exact cause of diabetes is unknown, researchers have found a link between obesity and the disease.

The report shows that 81% of counties in the Appalachian region have the highest rates of diabetes and obesity, according to a recent article published by WedMD. The Appalachian region includes Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia. It also finds that 77% of counties in Southern states such as Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and Alabama are among the highest in the nation.

A robust 15.3% of the population of Green County, Alabama has diabetes, putting it among the counties with the highest prevalence of diabetes. Holmes County in Mississippi also made the list at 15%, while Jefferson County, Mississippi checked in with 14.9%. Lowndes and Perry Counties in Alabama both showed that 15.2% of their population has diabetes.

On the flip side, some counties in the West and Northern Plains had some of the lowest rates of diabetes. In Boulder County, Colorado just 3.9% of the population has diabetes. Gallatin County, Montana (4.2), Los Alamos (4.3%) and Santa Fe (3.7%) counties in New Mexico and Summit County (4.2%) in Utah were also among the lowest, according to the WedMD article.

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