The Scourge of Diabetes and Research for a
Cure
This article
is about Type 1 diabetes, which occurs in childhood or young adulthood and is
not diet related. My brother, Russell was struck with Type 1 diabetes when he
was 3 years old, shortly after his exposure to chicken pox (from his older school-age siblings). For
the next 42 years and 345 days, his life was hellish. When he was a teenager a
physician told him he wouldn’t live to be 30. His life can be summed up in
numbers; 3 amputations, 3 kidney failures, 1 kidney-pancreas transplant, 3
times a week to the dialysis center, 1 heart surgery, 1 marriage, 1 divorce, 0
children, and one final note on the
ventilator. His long suffering and tragic result does not have to be your story
or that of your loved one, because the Benaroya Research Institute has been
working on a cure for diabetes for decades and is on the verge of a break
through. The Benaroya Research Institute is an example of one of the things
that is right about U.S. healthcare-we still have money to invest in research,
which can be funded through private foundations, in concert with the National
Institutes of Health, a federal agency.
T Cells and the Tetramer Lab
Last week, I
had the opportunity to tour a scientific lab and listen to a scientist who has
been conducting research to cure diabetes for fifteen years. In the Tetramer
lab, blood studies are conducted on thymus or T cells, because they are most
closely associated with the bodies’ endocrine functions. T cells have differing
characteristics which influence cell behavior, such as whether the bodies’
immune system starts to attack itself. Research on T cell behavior aims to
identify the causes of the cellular war fare and deprogram these aberrant cells
from this destructive behavior. The Benaroya Research Institute or BRI has been
using this same cell line for research since the 1980’s. Tetramer is a pink
fluid and 4 cells are optimal to complete scientific tests on the cellular matter.
BRI now has enough human bio samples to account for 97% of the U.S. population.
Though BRI is conducting research on
links to cellular characteristics for Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and
other autoimmune diseases are also being studied, because of the link to
cellular behavior attacking the immune system. Diseases which are under active research at
BRI include:
- · Type 1 diabetes
- · Rheumatoid arthritis
- · Multiple sclerosis
- · Inflammatory bowel disease
- · Asthma
Diagnosing Risk of Diabetes Before Symptoms
Are Visible
One of the
most promising areas of research is looking for ways to reprogram T cells before
diabetes starts. Currently diabetes is thought to have three stages, where the
first, like heart disease, shows no symptoms, and blood sugar levels are
normal. However, in this dormant stage the immune system has already started
attacking cells which control endocrine functions. In stage two, the blood
sugar levels are abnormal, and finally in stage three, the symptoms of diabetes
are present, which eventually lead to the pancreas ceasing to supply insulin. By
conducting clinical trials using donated blood, scientists are able to
determine an individual’s risk for diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. Just
like cancer, by diagnosing the presence or vulnerability for a disease earlier,
less damage is done, and the prognosis for the patient is better.
Gene Editing
Benaroya
Science Institute is working on gene editing which involves using cells from
study participants who have working pancreas and then engineering the same cell
responses in patients who have nonfunctioning pancreas. The updated cells are
then injected back into the patient’s blood stream and they begin their
recovery work on the T cell attacks in the pancreas. This is like a checkmate
on internal gene war fare. T cell therapy is a method of using revamped thymus
or T cells to correct the autoimmune defects in the body. By engineering
targeted gene responses, specific to each disease, only aspects related to that
disease are suppressed, not the entire immune system. This of course makes the
treatment much less invasive.
What You Can Do To Help
If you want
to help cure Type 1 diabetes and continue the research that Benaroya Research
Institute is doing, here are some things you can do:
·
Sign up to participate in the TrialNet study if
you are a family member of someone diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D). This
means your blood will be tested for markers of diabetes and you will be
assessed for risk and monitored. There is no cost to participate and all of the
testing is free and can be done anywhere in the world.
- · Adults of primary family members with (T1D) must be under 45 to participate in the study and have a parent, child, brother or sister with type 1 diabetes.
- · Secondary family members of people with (T1D) must be 1 to 20 years old and have a niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, grandparent, half-brother, half-sister, or cousin with type 1 diabetes.
- · Make a donation to the BRI Biobank for cellular research in anyone of 12 disease vectors.
- · Donate money to the Benaroya Research Institute.
- · Sponsor a fundraiser for the Benaroya Research Institute.
- · Tell others about the research at the Benaroya Research Institute.
For more
information on the work at the Benaroya Research Institute (BRI), go to their
web site www.BenaroyaResearch.org
or call 206-342-6500. https://connect.benaroyaresearch.org/donate
Who knows,
maybe in your lifetime we will have a vaccination for diabetes?
The
information in this article is based on materials provided by the Benaroya
Research Institute and my tour of the science lab on March 25, 2016. This article was written by Roberta E.
Winter, who publishes under the trademark, healthpolicymaven. She is the author
of http://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-U-S-Health-Care-Personal/dp/1442222972
