This is currently something that can only be done in a clinical trial involving immunosuppression agents. Receiving islet transplant without immunosuppression is pointless.
Historically, the immune suppression regimen required to keep transplanted islet cells functional is more risky than having Type I diabetes itself. However, if you require the immune suppression because you're receiving a kidney transplant anyway, then it makes sense.
Currently Eledon Pharmaceuticals is running a phase I trial of tegoprubart - an narrow targeted immune suppression med. The islet cell transplants definitely work very well and the drug appears to be working at keeping them functional at the one year mark.
BUT, the reason why they require multi-phase trials is to prove the safety of the drug. Will it cause excessive infections? Will it blunt vaccine effectiveness? Will it give you a 1 in 1000 risk of lymphoma?
As always, it's going to be a few more years.
negative
18
u/Ambitious-Spray-110
It has to be with immunosuppresion otherwise why bother? there is only one clinical study being done on this, Eledon pharma ?
negative
3
u/mattshwink
So cost is generally zero in a clinical trial. Immunosuppresants are required.
The Juicebox Podcast has a recent interview with participant number 9 in the study. She was about 1 month in. She has to fly to Chicago every 3 weeks currently for the immunotherapy treatment.
neutral
3
u/Goddessvienna
I saw a girl on tik tok do it with immunosuppressants given to her the first few days, and then would not require them following the treatment. I think it’s a newer technique they’re doing so that people don’t have to take immunosuppressants.
negative
2
u/Elegant_Review_4450
I haven’t personally gone through it, but from what I’ve heard most people who get Islet Cell Transplantation do have to take immunosuppressants, and it’s usually done through research programs or specialized centers. Some people get a few years of much easier control or even time without insulin, but the cost and the meds are big considerations, which is why it’s still not very common yet.
neutral
1
u/Stephen-Stephenson
No, but I'm researching the same topic.
Cure with mild targetted immunosuppression:
Eledon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZflOjMW-4MI
https://www.youtube.com/@CrushingT1/videos
I remember listening to a YouTube video and someone mentioned Eledon's cure costing about 35000 USD, but don't quote me on that. This could be wildly inaccurate. They still haven't gone public with the cure.
A scientist on SugarScience said a dose of artificial cells alone for a person cost only 5000 USD. Not a lot. And Chinese are building huge mega-factories right now to mass produces stem cells for cheap. Chinese are supposedly doing really great progress in this regard, but it's yet unclear if their cure will require immunosuppression or not.
Cure without immunosuppression:
Sana said they successfully transplanted 5% of beta cells to a man in Sweden and it worked exceptionally great. The man was very happy, although it did not eliminate his need for insulin (5% is not much, they simply wanted to test their cure). For some reason they don't reveal his name, they haven't done an interview with him and they keep him secret. That sucks and that's weird in the internet era. They are publishing a lot of papers and their cure looks very solid. They are looking for money; sadly, Sana's budget is peanuts. This is absolutely ridiculous. There are billionaires' children suffering from type 1 diabetes and their parents can't finance Sana? Sana's cure looks absolutely awesome, but it looks like they really lack money. Here is their pipeline, https://sana.com/our-pipeline/, the cure is in the pre-clinical state. Not even "Phase 1" yet, although it's past "Research". If I had big money, I would have gotten in touch with them immediately.
Vertex tried and failed last year. I've been listening to their reports and I was baffled to hear that some idiot at their company recommended a really moronic solution for protection of transplanted beta cells. I have no idea why they accepted it, but it sounded really stupid even to me who has no expertise in this field. It sounded like some 13 year old boy writing a new Star Trek episode, some hi tech crystallised grid or something where every cell is put inside of a grid node or something. A total disaster. But Vertex said they will keep trying until they succeed. Their SEO was super adamant about it. No timeline, no promises yet. Doug Melton looked a bit sad in an interview after that (I could read on his face he also was thinking that person who came up with that grid solution was an idiot). He even mentioned something like "I might not be able to see the cure in my lifetime". I could be putting words in his mouth and misrepresenting his point, I need to get back to that interview. But I found it be really pessimistic. I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong.
A new company started working on the cure super recently, CRISPR. Here is their pipeline: https://crisprtx.com/pipeline. It's in the "Research" phase. Not even pre-clinical. That's sucks, but it's great that they have started working on it. CRISPR are extremely professional and they get things done. A "device approach" is in the Clinical phase is most likely connected to Sernova.
https://crisprmedicinenews.com/news/crispr-edited-beta-cells-avoid-immune-rejection-without-immunosuppressants-in-human-transplantation/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/type-1-diabetes-patients-insulin-production-restored-with-new-cell/ - "it’s still too early to consider this approach for a cure" but “There’s tremendous hope.”
A new company has emerged, SymbioCellTech, here was an interview with their SEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlnaogIe4HA They are very ambitious. That's all I know.
Not stem cells, but still: an Israeli company hopefully will go public in 2029 with a cure in a form of pills. They promise to stop the immune attack and even possibly regenerate some beta cells. As wild as their claim sounds, they might actually be able to deliver it. They have a very solid background. We tried to contact them by e‑mail and by phone, but we could not reach them. If they responded, we would have gone to Israel already even right now.
https://www.startuphealth.com/startup-health-blog/2023/10/26/levicure-is-developing-a-breakthrough-triple-therapy-for-type-1-diabetes
https://healthtransformer.co/levicure-is-developing-a-breakthrough-triple-therapy-for-type-1-diabetes-b6c521e6b2c5
Diamyd from Sweden is coming public this or latest next year. Their pill stops the immune attack completely, but it works only in some people with specific genes. Mostly girls, for some weird reason, but it's so experimental they themselves don't know for sure what's going to happen. We will try this cure just in case, if they will allow us as soon as they go public. It's safe, so who cares.
Now what we are planning do. We will ask Diamyd to allow them to let our 3.5-year-old daughter try their pill this or next year. They might reject a young child, but we will keep na ?