Talk about it
Tom Cartier’s dream of a cure for Type 1 diabetes is a step closer to reality.
A University of Minnesota research team led by Dr. Bernhard Hering has successfully reversed the disease by transplanting pig islet cells into diabetic monkeys, according to researchers with the Spring Point Project.
Spring Point is the nonprofit set up by Cartier, owner of the Cartier insurance agency in Lincoln Park, to provide pigs for diabetes research.
Researchers now are waiting for the Food and Drug Administration to approve clinical trials of human subjects. That could be a year or more away.
“Spring Point’s done everything they can,” Cartier said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “It’s like being on the one-yard line and there’s a huge defensive line against you.”
Cartier’s son, Cory, is one of about 1 million Americans with Type 1 diabetes, a lifelong disease that usually is diagnosed in children, teenagers or young adults. It can lead to many complications, including loss of vision, dangerous skin and foot infections, and increased risk of heart attacks.
Cartier assembled a team to form Spring Point Project in 2004 with the purpose of providing pigs for research being carried out at the U of M’s Schulze Diabetes Institute. The $6.2 million facility that opened in New Richmond, Wis., in 2007 is designed to keep the pigs free of any form of contamination. The pigs originated from Riverside Colony, a Hutterite settlement in South Dakota, Cartier said.
Islet cells are found in the pancreas. One kind of islet cell produces insulin, which regulates sugar levels in the blood. In Type 1 diabetes, the cells produce little or no insulin. Diabetics are treated with insulin, but not cured.
In an interview on Thursday, Hering said diabetes reversal for 10 years or more had already been shown in some patients who received human islet cells. “Originally, the question was: How could we make this available to many, many more patients?” he said.
The only possible sources, he said, were stem cells or islet cells from pigs. Pig islet cells have numerous advantages, including being less susceptible to the human body’s autoimmune system, Hering said.
But the use of pig islet cells to treat Type 1 diabetes is far from a done deal. The vast majority of potential treatments that go into research and development never receive FDA approval, according to PhRMA, a consortium of pharmaceutical and biomedical companies. Even at the clinical stage, only one in five treatments ultimately are approved, and that typically takes six to seven years.
But Hering is optimistic, saying the use of animal cells “is a very different class of medical products which has a much higher chance.”
He wouldn’t speculate on how long the clinical trials might take. “The important point is this is very well-
advanced, and it’s very close to getting to the point that it can finally be tested in people,” he said.
Still, the start of tests on humans probably is at least a year away, Hering said.
He also was reluctant to use the word “cure” when discussing pig islet cells.
“I don’t want to make the very bold statement that this will cure anybody with diabetes right away,” Hering said. “It would not be reasonable to say something like this. But I believe this technology holds enormous potential for becoming a vital treatment option.”
It also should be relatively inexpensive, “because with pigs, economy of scale comes in,” Hering said.
Spring Point is preparing to ramp up pig production, Cartier said. “Our goal is to start building more facilities,” he said. “We just believe it’s going to work.”
Cory Cartier, who was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 10, is 28 now and in good health, his father said. “The difficult part is even the ones that are healthy still have to go through the (daily treatment) regimen.
“I’ve talked to so many young people that have Type 1 diabetes,” Cartier said. “The day the FDA says, ‘Go for it,’ there’s going to be the biggest party.”
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