Posted on 05/30/2013 5:06:32 PM PDT by neverdem
Melbourne researchers have identified an immune protein that has the potential to stop or reverse the development of type 1 diabetes in its early stages, before insulin-producing cells have been destroyed.
The discovery has wider repercussions, as the protein is responsible for protecting the body against excessive immune responses, and could be used to treat, or even prevent, other immune disorders such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Professor Len Harrison, Dr Esther Bandala-Sanchez and Dr Yuxia Zhang led the research team from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's Molecular Medicine division that identified the immune protein CD52 as responsible for suppressing the immune response, and its potential for protecting against autoimmune diseases. The research was published today in the journal Nature Immunology.
So-called autoimmune diseases develop when the immune system goes awry and attacks the body's own tissues. Professor Harrison said CD52 held great promise as a therapeutic agent for preventing and treating autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.
"Immune suppression by CD52 is a previously undiscovered mechanism that the body uses to regulate itself, and protect itself against excessive or damaging immune responses," Professor Harrison said. "We are excited about the prospect of developing this discovery to clinical trials as soon as possible, to see if CD52 can be used to prevent and treat type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. This has already elicited interest from pharmaceutical companies."
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that develops when immune cells attack and destroy insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Approximately 120,000 Australians have type 1 diabetes and incidence has doubled in the last 20 years. "Type 1 diabetes is a life-long disease," Professor Harrison said. "It typically develops in children and teenagers, and it really makes life incredibly difficult for them and their families. It also..."...
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Diabetes is a HUGE money maker. I expect this to disappear quietly.
>> “Diabetes is a HUGE money maker. I expect this to disappear quietly.” <<
.
And it definitely will, just as thousands of effective cures for disease have.
The Med Mafia reigns supreme.
Hmmm... I work for a company that produces insulin pumps. I also have a son with type 1 diabetes.
Do you think I would deep six a cure for diabetes just to save my job?
I have two kids with type 1. I’m guessing the CEOs do not have children with this disease.
There was a study out of Canada where they neutralized pain-nerves of the pancreas and stopped diabetes. From the National Post:
December 15, 2006. Tom Blackwell, National Post
In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.
Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. “Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.”
Shhhhh . . . . . .
Mice are a convenient mammalian model, but they have their limitations.
Could we cool it on the Big Pharma cabal that withholds cures? There are a lot of unknown unknowns, i.e. the investigators don't know what they are still ignorant about. A lot of basic biomedical science has yet to be done. There are a lot of physicians involved who want to provide cures, who would consider withholding cures unethical, and who have jumbo egos.
It’s not the physicians that are the problem.
The big money is not in individual effort, but in selling snake oil at high prices to those physicians and their patients.
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