Harvard researchers mark progress in type 1 diabetes study

     In a report showing a departure from the usual thinking concerning a traditional model of type 1 diabetes mellitus, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School) have found that C-peptide, a hallmark of beta cell function, can be detected in the serum of the type 1 diabetes patients for 30 years or more after disease onset. It is exciting to see that the pancreas continues to "live" in long-term diabetes. According to the traditional model, no functional beta cells remain and no insulin is produced after the initial phase, which lasts for about one year after disease onset, except in very rare cases.

     Denise Faustman, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues measured the level of C-peptide in the serum of 182 type 1 diabetes patients. While the C-peptide levels were seen to decrease gradually over the years, C-peptide was still detected in 10 percent in the group with a 31- to 40-year disease duration. Dr. Faustman comments, "To our astonishment, the curve of pancreas decay was dramatically different than that revealed with old assays of C-peptide that are commonly used clinically." Dr. Faustman says that this validates their belief that "pursuing a cure for this population of patients with type 1 diabetes is a 'promising strategy.'"

     Dr. Faustman believes that this finding might change the attitudes of patients and clinicians. For example, patients who feel that their glucose levels are increasingly harder to control will no longer be blamed for their lifestyle habits as this deterioration can be attributed to the slow loss of insulin over decades instead of months.
Dr. Faustman and colleagues are in the midst of their planning process for the Phase II human clinical trial to reverse type 1 diabetes and are on target with their goal to begin patient enrollment within the next year.

     AARDA, through the generosity of the Brave Dave Foundation, is a proud supporter of this very promising research.

--Source: Excerpted from "Functional ß cells detected in long-standing T1DM--a new hope for intervention?" Joana Osório, Nature Reviews Endocrinology, March 13, 2012; and Denise L. Faustman, M.D., Ph.D., letter dated June 5, 2012