New Diabetes Treatment Teaches Rogue Immune Cells To Behave

New diabetes treatment teaches rogue immune cells to behave

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A treatment targeting wayward immune cells in people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes may help even years later, a new study finds.
For the treatment, researchers take blood from a person with diabetes and separate out the immune system cells (lymphocytes). They briefly expose those cells to stem cells from umbilical cord blood from an unrelated infant. Then they return the lymphocytes to the patient's body.
The researchers have dubbed this treatment "stem cell educator therapy," because when exposed to the stem cells, the errant lymphocytes seem to re-learn how they should behave.
"Stem cell educator therapy is a safe approach" with long-term effectiveness, said the study's lead author, Dr. Yong Zhao, an associate scientist at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.
Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease, occurs when the body's immune system cells mistakenly attack the insulin-producing (beta) cells in the pancreas. This leaves people with Type 1 diabetes with little to no insulin. They need insulin injections to survive.
Researchers have long thought that any cure for Type 1 diabetes would have to stop the autoimmune attack, while regenerating or transplanting beta cells.
But Zhao and his team developed a new approach to the problem — educating the immune cells that had been destroying beta cells so they stop attacking.
In Type 2 diabetes, Zhao said immune cell dysfunction is responsible for chronic inflammation that causes insulin resistance. When someone is insulin-resistant, their body's cells can't properly use insulin to usher sugar from fo Continue reading

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Mouthwash may kill beneficial bacteria in mouth and trigger diabetes, Harvard study suggests

Mouthwash may seem a beneficial, or at least harmless, addition to a daily tooth brushing routine.
But a new study suggests that swilling with anti-bacterial fluid could be killing helpful microbes which live in the mouth and protect against obesity and diabetes.
While mouthwash is supposed to target the bacteria which cause plaque and bad breath, in fact, it is indiscriminate, washing away beneficial strains.
Researchers at Harvard University found that people who used mouthwash twice a day were around 55 per cent more likely to develop diabetes or dangerous blood sugar spikes, within three years.
Although previous studies have found that poor oral hygiene can lead to health problems elsewhere in the body, it is the first research to show that seemingly positive practices can have unexpectedly negative consequences.
Kaumudi Joshipura, professor of epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, said: “Most of these antibacterial ingredients in mouthwash are not selective.
“In other words, they do not target specific oral bacteria-instead, these ingredients can act on a broad range of bacteria.”
The study looked at 1,206 overweight people aged between 40 and 65 who were deemed at risk of getting diabetes.
Over the study period around 17 per cent of people developed diabetes or pre-diabetes, but that rose to 20 per cent for those using mouthwash once a day, and 30 per cent for those who used it in the morning and evening.
Prof Joshipura said helpful bacteria in the mouth can protect against diabetes and obesity, including microbes which help the body produce nitric ox Continue reading

One Man’s Stand Against Junk Food as Diabetes Climbs Across India

NEW DELHI — Rahul Verma’s son was born gravely ill with digestive problems, but over years of visits to the boy’s endocrinologist, Mr. Verma saw the doctor grow increasingly alarmed about a different problem, one threatening healthy children. Junk food, the doctor warned, was especially dangerous to Indians, who are far more prone to diabetes than people from other parts of the world.
One day in the doctor’s waiting room, Mr. Verma noticed a girl who had gotten fat by compulsively eating potato chips. He decided he had to do something.
“On one side you have children like my son, who are born with problems,” said Mr. Verma, “and on the other side you have children who are healthy and everything is fine and you are damaging them giving them unhealthy food.”
Mr. Verma, who had no legal training, sat late into the nights with his wife, Tullika, drafting a petition in their tiny apartment, which was bedecked with fairy lights and pictures of the god Ganesh, who is believed to overcome all obstacles. He filed the public interest lawsuit in the Delhi High Court in 2010, seeking a ban on the sale of junk food and soft drinks in and around schools across India.
The case has propelled sweeping, court-ordered regulations of the food industry to the doorstep of the Indian government, where they have languished. They have outsize importance in India, population 1.3 billion, because its people are far more likely to develop diabetes — which can lead to heart disease, kidney failure, blindness and amputations — as they gain weight than people from other regions, accord Continue reading

Think Twice Before Making That Diabetes Joke

I decided to do a little experiment. I went to the mall and asked strangers a question,
“When I say the word ‘diabetes,’ what is the first thing that pops into your
mind?”
I got varied responses, but about half of the answers fell into the stigma. What is the stigma, you ask? The stigma is that people with diabetes are overweight, that people with diabetes ate too much sugar, that people with diabetes need to diet.
If we look at the things written down in the picture above, you’ll see about half of them appear to have a decent understanding. Yes, diabetes is an illness and a disease. Yes, for many it does involve needles. Some people thought of a family member who was affected. A couple of people even knew there was more than one type of diabetes.
So where does the problem come in? About half the responses included the word “sugar.” Most disturbingly, upon further discussion I learned this was literally all the knowledge some people had about diabetes.
I’m sure you’ve seen it before on social media. You see a picture of an indulgent dessert, and you click on the comments. “DIABETES,” someone said. You’re reading someone’s Facebook status and it reads, “If John had 20 candy bars, then Joe gave him 2, what does he have now? Diabetes. John has diabetes.” Again, you click on the comments to see that they’re full of “LOLs,” “HAHAHAs,” and praise for the hilarious joke. The thing is… it’s not hilarious. It’s horribly offensive.Diabetes is not a candy bar. Diabetes is a devastating disease that can happen
to anyone. It doesn’t matter Continue reading

Immunotherapy treatment shown safe in type 1 diabetes clinical trial

A small clinical trial showed an immune system therapy was safe for people with type 1 diabetes, British researchers report.
The immunotherapy also showed signs of helping to keep insulin production steady in people newly diagnosed with the disease, the study authors said. However, because this was a placebo-controlled safety trial, there weren't enough people included to know for sure how well the treatment works.
The therapy is similar to an allergy shot in the way it works, the researchers explained.
"Type 1 diabetes comes about when the immune system inadvertently and irreparably damages beta cells that make insulin," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Mark Peakman. He's a professor of clinical immunology at King's College London in England.
Insulin is a naturally occurring hormone that helps usher the sugar from foods into the body's cells to be used as energy. If the immune system continues to attack the beta cells, which are found in the pancreas, a person with type 1 diabetes will no longer make enough insulin to meet the body's needs. It's at this point that they must take insulin injections or use an insulin pump to replace the lost insulin.
Peakman and his colleagues are trying to stop the attacks on the beta cells.
"We have learned that immune attacks like this can be suppressed by immune cells called T-regs (regulatory T cells)," Peakman said.
When people develop type 1 diabetes, it's likely that they don't have enough of the right type of T-regs or those T-regs aren't working very well. So, the investigators developed a type of treatment called peptide immun Continue reading