Girl With Diabetes And Insulin Allergy To Receive Pancreas Transplant

Girl With Diabetes and Insulin Allergy to Receive Pancreas Transplant

A 12-year old South Carolina girl with Type 1 diabetes and what her parents describe as an intense allergy to insulin therapy is set to undergo a rarely performed whole pancreas transplant at the University of Minnesota.
Jack and Tiffanie Reeves, parents of Emmy, say they will take her on a cross country trip to diabetes camp in California, including a stop at Universal Studios in Orlando to “build memories,” and then move her temporarily to Minnesota with her mother as they wait for a pancreas to become available.
The surgeon who will perform the transplant, Dr. Raja Kandaswamy, Director of the Pancreas and Intestinal Transplant Program at the University of Minnesota , says Emmy’s transplant will be the first one done at his center in the past 15 to perhaps 20 years. And while Kandaswamy points to Emmy’s situation as unique, he also says he feels that pancreas transplantation is an option too few pediatric endocrinologists consider for patients. “There is not as much enthusiasm as there should be,” Kandaswamy said. “The diabetes community is told [with a transplant] they are just trading off one set of risks for another.”
In some cases, he disagrees. “I think it can be a viable choice,” he said.
Kandaswamy said that in recent years, steroid use in transplant patients has been cut down to near zero, meaning less harsh medications after a transplant. “We are looking at a new era of transplant,” he said. “The nature of it has changed.” He added that when islet cell transplantation is approved for minors, he foresees transplantation becoming more po Continue reading

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Lupin plans to bring new class of diabetes drug to India

Mumbai: Lupin Ltd, India’s second largest pharmaceutical company, is looking to enhance its diabetes drugs offering in the domestic market by bringing in a new class of drugs through the in-licensing route, a senior company official said.
Under in-licensing, a company gets a licence to market a product of another company in one or more geographies.
Lupin’s current diabetes products’ basket includes different classes of drugs such as oral hypoglycemic agents (OHAs), insulins and novel drugs like sodium glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitor drug empagliflozin, and Dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor drug linagliptin.
“When it comes to diabetes, we have a complete range of products. One thing, we are missing is GLP 1 analog, which we are looking to bring into our portfolio,” Rajeev Sibal, president, India Region Formulations, Lupin, told Mint.
GLP 1 or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist helps normalise blood sugar levels.
In India, GLP 1 class of drugs is sold by Novo Nordisk, Eli Lily and Co. and Sanofi, in injectable form.
According to data from healthcare information provider QuintilesIMS, Novo Nordisk sells its drug through partner Abbott India under brand name Victoza, Eli Lily under the brand Trulicity, and Sanofi under the brand Lyxumia. The prices of these injections are in the range of Rs3,100 to Rs4,000.
In the area of diabetes, Lupin has had in-licensing deals with US-based Eli Lilly and German company Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH over the last two-three years to bring in new classes of drugs to the Indian market.
The overall market size of di Continue reading

How to Count Carbs for Diabetes Management

Most of my clients with diabetes count carbs to help manage their blood sugar levels. It’s one of many tools to help them with meal planning.
What is carb counting?
With carb counting, you estimate the amount of carbohydrate in your food with the goal of staying within a predetermined range or allowance for each meal and snack.
Carb counting does NOT mean avoiding carbohydrates. It does NOT mean that carbs are bad. Carbohydrates are a nutrient. They are not a type of food. And many, many health-boosting, disease-fighting foods are rich in carbohydrates. Think fruit, quinoa, yogurt, milk, vegetables, black beans, chickpeas, limas, brown rice and a million more!
The beauty of carb counting is that it gives you tons of flexibility. You can choose your carbohydrates from any type of food. This is also the downfall of carb counting. I sure don’t want you to focus on carb counts without paying attention to nutrition. This is just like limiting calories to lose weight, but favoring veggie chips and diet pudding over the foods your body really needs like fruit, nuts and salmon.
Why is it a good idea to count carbs?
Don’t avoid carbs. Count them!
Eating a lot of carbohydrate at one time raises blood sugar a lot, and eating just a little carbohydrate, raises blood sugar less. Many people with diabetes aim for about 45 – 60 grams of carbohydrate per meal and 15 grams or so per snack, but the amount that’s right for you may be more or less. And that depends on your medications, activity level, blood sugar goals and other things. I like to look at my patients’ food records a Continue reading

First patient in diabetes trial no longer needs insulin therapy

MIAMI, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- The first patient to receive therapeutic delivery of islet cells in a new diabetes study no longer needs insulin therapy to control type 1 diabetes, according to doctors at the University of Miami's Diabetes Research Institute.
The patient, Wendy Peacock, 43, has been giving herself insulin injections to control diabetes since she was diagnosed with the condition at age 17. Since she had the minimally-invasive procedure on August 18, Peacock has been off insulin, because her body is producing it naturally, and she no longer has the dietary restrictions that accompany type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is caused by inadvertent destruction of insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas by the immune system. While previous experimental treatments that involved the replacement of these cells has allowed patients to live without the need for insulin-replacement therapy for up to a decade, the goal is for better delivery of the cells to make the surgical treatment permanent -- effectively curing the condition.
"The technique has been designed to minimize the inflammatory reaction that is normally observed when islets are implanted in the liver or in other sites with immediate contact to the blood," said Dr. Camillo Ricordi, director of the DRI and a professor of biomedical engineering, microbiology, and immunology at the University of Miami, in a press release. "If these results can be confirmed, this can be the beginning of a new era in islet transplantation. Our ultimate goal is to include additional technologies to prevent the need for life-long anti-r Continue reading

Common jab could hold key to finding cure for Type 1 diabetes

Scientists are convinced the debilitating effects of Type 1 diabetes can be reversed with a cheap jab used to combat tuberculosis.
Unlike lifestyle-driven Type 2 diabetes, which is often linked to obesity, Type 1 is an auto immune disease that, until now, was thought to be incurable.
But a major breakthrough could see the chronic condition - known as early onset diabetes - wiped out within years.
Researchers think the generic Bacillus Calmette–Guerin (BCG) jab, administered to tens of millions of children each year, can help regenerate insulin-making cells, effectively reversing the condition.
The BCG vaccine is up to 80 per cent effective in preventing TB for 15 years.
Results of initial tests in those who had diabetes for an average of 15 years suggest insulin production can be restored, albeit briefly, by a simple booster injection.
This is a cheap and generic drug that could be very effective and we’ve been saying that message over and over ahead since the start
The astonishing outcome is considered so significant £12million is being ploughed into a second five-year trial.
Experts in Britain described the quantum leap as “very exciting”.
Dr Denise Faustman, who is leading the research, said: “We decided to use a safe 100-year-old vaccine to make this happen and we’ve found that it works.
“We saw early signs that even at low doses of this vaccine the bad white blood cells that were killing the pancreas were killed and the good white blood cells that quiet down Type 1 diabetes were up-regulated.
“This is a cheap and generic drug that could be very effecti Continue reading