Current Research into Cures for Type-1 Diabetes: January 2018

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Diabecell Research Closes Out (With Comments on Encapsulation In General)

Diabecell is an encapsulated pig beta cell treatment aimed at curing type-1 diabetes. This research started in the 1990s, and was part of a group of encapsulated stem cell cures which were developed at the same time by different companies/research groups. Most of the others ended in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but LCT continued and is still operating today. I've blogged many times on this research: https://cureresearch4type1diabetes.blogspot.com/search/label/LCT

The last two running studies on Diabecell were marked as "completed" in October 2017. The most recent clinical trial started in 2011, and published some results in 2016, but they were not strong. Since it has been two years since their last results, and they have not started a new trial in that time, and also because the results of their trials have been lack-luster for years before that, I'm going to drop them from active coverage here.

Discussion

This should serve as a cautionary tale for all encapsulated beta cell cure research. There were at least 4 companies trying to cure type-1 diabetes this way in the 1990s, and it looks like all of those were unsuccessful. There was another crop of these in the 2000s, and most of those have been unsuccessful as well. (Although Viacyte, founded in 1999 as Novocell, is still in active development and may yet cure type-1 diabetes.) More recently, in the 2010s there has been another batch of start ups in this area (Dr. Melton's Semma Therapeutics, Beta-O2 Technologies, etc.), and also an even larger batch of new academic research (such as recently reported at Cornell, UCSF, etc.)

I'm positive about all this research. I'm positive about all research aimed at curing type-1 diabetes. I hope it all works. I hope any of it works (because it only takes one cure). However, I do think it is important not to get to overly excited about encapsulated beta cell research (even as it sounds straight forward), because it's obviously more complex than it sounds.

Especially, it is clear to me that the hard part is the encapsulation part, not the beta cell part. The pig beta cells used by LCT generate the insulin that people with type-1 diabetes injected for decades (from the 1920s to the 1970s). Those cells work just fine, so LCT's problems are encapsulation. Other companies have used human beta cells from cadavers. Those cells worked just fine for their previous owners, which reinforces my belief that the breakthrough that makes encapsulated beta cells successful is going to be on the encapsulation side, not the beta cell sourcing side.

Recent Clinical Trial Records:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01736228
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01739829
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00940173

Academic encapsulation research in the news:
http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/01/removable-implant-may-control-type-1-diabetes
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2017/10/408731/innovative-type-1-diabetes-approach-licensed-encellin

Joshua Levy
http://cureresearch4type1diabetes.blogspot.com
publicjoshualevy at gmail dot com
All the views expressed here are those of Joshua Levy, and nothing here is official JDRF or JDCA news, views, policies or opinions. My daughter has type-1 diabetes and participates in clinical trials, which might be discussed here. My blog contains a more complete non-conflict of interest statement. Thanks to everyone who helps with the blog.

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This blog discusses cures and preventatives for type-1 diabetes that are either in human trials or just about to start. Treatments for diabetes are not generally discussed here, unless they can turn into a cure or a preventative. My definition of a cure is this:
1. Blood sugar control without testing and with doctor's visits 4 times a year, or less. Any cure must result in an average lifespan close to normal.
2. Does not require a lifetime of immunsuppressive drugs, so it is not trading one treatment for another. (but a couple of operations, or a short course of drugs is OK)
Obviously, this is my personal definition of a cure; yours may differ.
Because a cure for type-1 diabetes is likely to involve a combination of several different drugs or treatments, I try to follow research into anything which may be an important part of the cure.

My Non-Conflict of Interest Statement

For the first 10 years of running this blog, I did not work for a company doing medical research. In 2018, I started working for Bigfoot Biomedical, which is developing an "automated insulin dosing/delivery solution" (what many call an Artificial Pancreas).
I blog on research aimed at curing type-1 diabetes, and I view Bigfoot Biomedical's work as treating type-1 diabetes (not a cure at all). Therefore, I don't view this work as conflicting with my blogging. However, if you consider the kind of automated insulin dosing/delivery solution that Bigfoot is developing to be an actual cure for type-1, then this would conflict with my blogging. I think they are quite different.
I don't get paid in any way by any company working on a cure for type-1 diabetes; I never have. And that includes free samples, free travel, or free anything. I do sometimes participate in market research studies or focus groups, and they sometimes pay.
None of the hours that I have put into my blog, or the posts that I make to any web site, has ever been paid for. (Except for some very nice and heart felt thank-you emails, and those are worth more than money.)
My daughter has type-1 diabetes and participates in clinical trials. I sometimes report on trials that she participates in, but I do not reveal her participation because I consider her medical history to be private.
I sometimes "beta test" new software or devices involved in type-1 diabetes. When I'm blogging about something where I have been given special access, I say so.
In the past I have volunteered with JDRF and The NIIB Project. I currently am a fellow with JDCA. The JDRF and NIIB work was completely unpaid. JDCA has given me equipment that I use to help my blogging, and on one occasion paid for specific consulting work.