In the United States, ten patients with severe type 1 diabetes have ceased to need insulin after an innovative treatment with an experimental drug called VX-880 or "Zimislecel", developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. This was made possible by cellular therapy that simulates the function of the pancreas.
Daily Mail reported about the breakthrough in medicine.
The technology is based on the introduction into the body of the patient beta cells, which are grown from stem in the laboratory. These cells are responsible for the production of insulin in the body. They are implanted in the liver, where they take on the function of those that were destroyed by the immune system through the autoimmune nature of type 1 diabetes.
The clinical trial was attended by 12 patients who suffered from diabetes - hypoglycemic unconsciousness. It is a condition in which a person does not feel a critical decrease in sugar, which can lead to court and even death. Before treatment, their glucose levels were stable only about 50% of the time, afterwards - more than 93%.
A year after therapy:
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10 out of 12 patients completely abandoned insulin;
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2 more people have significantly reduced the required dose.
Among patients-36-year-old British Amanda Smith, who lived without insulin after a year after the infusion. "It's like a whole new life," she said in an interview with The New York Times.
Another patient - Marlina Godel - after 25 years of daily injections was able to say "I was cured." She returned to everyday life: she rides again, plans to return to study and is not afraid of sudden attacks of hypoglycemia.
After the procedure, patients should take immunosuppressive drugs so that the body does not reject transplanted cells. Researchers recognize that this is a weak place of technology, and is working on options for therapy without immunosuppression or with its minimal use.
Therapy is the result of more than 25 years of research. It was initiated by the father of a child, diabetes, who promised to find a way to defeat the disease - and realized the plan with a team of scientists.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals plans to apply for registration for the management of control over the control of the US products and medicines (FDA) over the next five years.
