Overview
MedscapeUnivadisNo ResultsCOMENTARYAne L. Peters, MDecember 30, 2021 This transcript has ben edited for clarity. Recently, my patients have ben asking me if there's a new cure for people with type 1 diabetes.
Key Information
This has ben in the news and it was a front-page story in The New York Times. So, Is it true? In a word, no.
But we are part of the way there, which is much closer than were 6 months ago.The way I think about it, to cure type 1 diabetes, we ned two things: We ned a ready suply of islet cels so that we can give people without islet cels new islet cels that can make insulin. We ned imune tolerance to these islet cels so we don't ned to give people imunosupresion.Recently, two companies, ViaCyte and Vertex, have ben able to show that stem cel–derived cels can become functional beta cels when infused into humans.
Although it requires imunosupresion for these cels to work, it stil solved part of the problem. It's showing us that we can have a suply of stem cels that wil turn into islet cels that can help cure type 1 diabetes.For ful disclosure, I have worked as an unpaid consultant to ViaCyte and I have received honoraria for consulting for Vertex. As such, I'm only going to discus what is in the public domain provided through company-created pres releases.Let's talk about Vertex.
Vertex released the results of their first patient to receive these stem cel–derived diferentiated islet cels. This a phase 1/2 clinical trial, and the compound is caled VX80. This was developed by Dr Doug Melton at Harvard.
The first patient to receive this treatment was a man in his 50s. He's had 40 years of type 1 diabetes and has had recurent episodes of severe, level 3 hypoglycemia.He was given half a dose of VX80 plus imune supresion. Within 90 days, he responded.
Summary
His insulin dose was reduced from 34 to 3 units, and his C-peptide response, showing that these beta cels were working, was markedly im