[Diabetes-talk] FW: [acb-diabetics] FW: Chicago Tribune Listing -Take a look! sent from Rob

Sun Jun 26 21:35:41 UTC 2011

Yeah; I read about her in a BARD book by a NY Times reporter.

I love people who question established paradigms as you will see in this
year's DAN seminar. (mischievous grin) No; I haven't gotten Dr. Bernstein to
speak to us -- didn't try as his fee is undoubtedly way out of our league.
But what is on the agenda is *almost* as good. (grin)

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Diane
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 12:04 PM
To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] FW: [acb-diabetics] FW: Chicago Tribune Listing
-Take a look! sent from Rob

Thanks Mike,
I have been following Faustmans research!
Diane
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
To: "Diabetes Talk for the Blind" <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 12:57 PM
Subject: [Diabetes-talk] FW: [acb-diabetics] FW: Chicago Tribune Listing
-Take a look! sent from Rob

>
>
>
>
> From: acb-diabetics-bounces at acb.org 
> [mailto:acb-diabetics-bounces at acb.org]
> On Behalf Of Patricia LaFrance-Wolf
> Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 11:12 AM
> To: Acb-Diabetics at Acb. Org
> Subject: [acb-diabetics] FW: Chicago Tribune Listing - Take a look! 
> sent from Rob
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  _____
>
> From: Robertglafrance at Hotmail.com [mailto:Robertglafrance at Hotmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 1:05 AM
> To: plawolf at earthlink.net
> Subject: Chicago Tribune Listing - Take a look! sent from Rob
>
>
>
> Rob recommends this article to you!
>
> This is why he recommends the article to you. Interesting
>
> Is BCG a cure for diabetes? The long road to acceptance
>
> from the Chicago Tribune
>
> The first trial in a handful of humans has suggested that injecting 
> patients with Type 1 diabetes with an inexpensive vaccine normally 
> used to prevent tuberculosis can block destruction of 
> insulin-secreting pancreatic cells 
> <http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-bcg-diabetes-20110625,0,6341862.s
> tory> in humans and allow regeneration of the pancreas. Such a 
> finding, if confirmed and expanded on, could lay the foundation for 
> freeing the estimated 1 million U.S. Type 1 diabetics from their daily 
> insulin shots.
> It
> brings up a word that is rarely or never used in considering the disease:
> "cure." Such an outcome is still a long way in the future, but Dr. 
> Denise Faustman of Massachusetts General Hospital has already come a 
> long way in her quest to find a new treatment paradigm for diabetes.
>
> Researchers have always assumed that insulin-secreting cells could 
> never be regenerated. Once they are gone, they are gone forever, the 
> theory held.
> Scientists have thus focused on ways to prevent their loss -- such as 
> by developing vaccines that will halt the immune system's attack on 
> the pancreas before all the cells are destroyed -- or by transplanting 
> replacement cells from a donor. The first approach has not yet shown 
> much success, and the second has provided only limited benefits.
> Insulin-secreting cells for transplants are difficult to obtain in 
> quantity, provoke a strong immune response and require 
> immunosuppressive drugs. They can "cure" diabetes, freeing patients 
> from their insulin secretions, but the benefits often disappear with 
> time.
>
> Faustman started out as a transplanter, learning her technique from Dr. 
> Paul
> Lacey of Washington University of St. Louis, a pioneer in the field. 
> When she came to Mass General in 1985, she was confident that she 
> could do the transplants better than other researchers and that her 
> attempts would succeed. For one of the few times in her life, however, 
> it turned out that she was wrong.
>
> She decided to go back into the lab and attempt to figure out why the 
> transplants were failing. Most researchers had studied transplants in 
> mice in which the pancreas was artificially destroyed. Faustman 
> decided to look at mice that, like humans, had a strong propensity to 
> develop diabetes naturally. She found that the transplants failed in 
> those animals just like they had in her human trials, and she 
> eventually determined that the rodents' immune systems were attacking 
> the transplanted cells just like they had their own pancreases.
>
> Eventually, she developed a two-pronged attack. First she injected the 
> mice with Freund's Complete Adjuvant, a mixture of water, oil and 
> parts of dead bacteria that is sometimes used to increase the power of 
> vaccines. The adjuvant overstimulated the immune cells that were 
> attacking the pancreas, causing them to self-destruct. She also 
> injected the rodents with BCG, known formally as bacillus 
> Calmette-Guerin, which has been used for 80 years as a preventive for 
> tuberculosis. It stimulated the production of another immune 
> component, called tumor necrosis factor or TNF, that kills the cells 
> that were attacking the pancreas.
>
> Faustman's goal was simply to prevent the attack on islet cells of the 
> pancreas so that a new transplant could have a chance to take hold. To 
> her great surprise, however, the treated mice began producing insulin 
> again -- a finding that contradicted everything researchers believed 
> about diabetes.
> Eventually, however, other labs were able to replicate her results.
>
> In subsequent papers, Faustman showed that the new insulin-secreting 
> cells were being produced by the spleen, a fist-sized organ that plays 
> a crucial role in recycling blood cells. First, she demonstrated that 
> the cure of the mice could be accelerated by injecting extra spleen 
> cells into the animals.
> Then she transplanted male spleens into female mice undergoing the 
> treatment and demonstrated that the insulin-producing cells were male 
> in origin.
>
> Very little research has been conducted in humans about what happens 
> to patients after their spleens have been removed for medical reasons. 
> But Faustman found two studies, one of British patients with 
> pancreatitis and one of children with beta-thalassemia, in which their 
> spleens had been removed. In both groups, many of the patients 
> developed diabetes within five years after their surgery. These 
> findings suggest that the spleen plays a key role in regulating 
> glucose uptake.
>
> Faustman had great difficulty obtaining research funds because her 
> ideas were so contrary to the prevailing wisdom. One person who 
> believed in her, however, was Lee A. Iacocca, the former chief of 
> Chrysler Corp., whose wife Mary died of diabetes. Iacocca wrote her a 
> check for $1 million and by 2006, his Iacocca Family Foundation had 
> raised more than $11 million for her research.
>
> She is now gearing up for a larger, phase 2 clinical trial of the 
> technique.
> More information about her research can be obtained here 
> <http://www.faustmanlab.org>  and those interested in participating in 
> the trials can e-mail her at diabetestrial at partners.org. But be warned 
> there is already a long waiting list.
>
>
>
> Click here to view this article <http://tribwww.gumiyo.com/k/XJdqgFG>
>
>

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