Tired of daily injections? New type-1 diabetes treatment could help patients produce insulin on their own again

Daily insulin injections for patients with type-1 diabetes could be a thing of the past if the new treatment developed by scientists from the University of California, San Francisco will prove to be a success.

The treatment could pave the way for restoring the ability of people with type-1 diabetes to produce insulin for a year or more using their own immune cells, according to a report from the Independent.

In the U.S., a little over 9 percent of the population are battling diabetes. That is about 29.1 million Americans, 1.25 million of which are children and adults with type-1 diabetes.  This disease is not caused by one's diet but is passed on among family members, according to Breitbart.com.

Our body is designed to break down sugars and starches into glucose, which we use for energy, with the help of the hormone insulin. But, for type-1 diabetes patients, the pancreas loses its ability to produce the hormone.

"For type-1 diabetes, we've traditionally given immunosuppressive drugs, but this trial gives us a new way forward," said Professor Jeffrey Bluestone, one of the scientists involved in the work. "By using Tregs to re-educate the immune system, we may be able to change the course of this disease."

Tregs or T-regulatory immune cells were cultivated by the researchers in billions and introduced them to the body of type-1 diabetic patients. While the immune system of these patients attacks the pancreas, the Tregs do not have such traits.

"Using a patient's own cells - identifying them, isolating them, expanding them, and infusing them back - is an exciting new pillar for drug development," Bluestone said. The professor also added that their findings could be a "game-changer".

The methodology of the study involved taking a pint of blood from the patient and removing up to 4 million Tregs. The cells were then cultivated in a test tube in order to increase the number by 1,500 times. The Tregs were then brought back to the patient and the research showed that these cells did not attack the pancreas.

According to Regal Tribune, this could also helped scientists to better understand if adding this very large amount of T-regs will cause any side effects in the patients. But, the results showed that almost no side effects were present, and up to 25% of the cells infused in the body through the process were still present in the system after a whole year.

The study involved 14 people who were treated without any serious side-effects for the first clinical trial of the technique. The research team is now planning a larger trial. The findings of the study were reported by the researchers in the journal Science Translation Medicine. They now plan a larger trial.

"The Treg intervention aims to prevent the development and progression of type-1 diabetes, freeing people like me from the daily grind of insulin therapy and lifelong fear of complications," said Mary Rooney, 39, one of the patients who underwent the trial.