Diabetes Cure ?

[KennyD]

I saw on the news a few days ago that a Dr. Martinez at a Florida University "claims" to have found a cure for Diabetes .
The good doctor says that his "Cure" works on labatory rats and mice .... and ; that his "Cure" will be in pill form BUT may require a few shots first ...
Dr. Martinez says that his "Cure" is based from some type of dried lettuce ... and should be available for human use in about four to five years .
I hope that I can live that long .... BUT; that means eating properly and taking all the right meds until this "Cure" if it works ... is available ... Wonder IF I will last long enough ... ??
Has anyone else heard anything about this Diabetes Cure ?

 

[drhladnjak]

I haven't heard anything about this but remember--if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And dried lettuce? Not sure how that's going to bring back a insufficiently functional pancreas.

 

[snapcat]

I haven't heard a thing about this. If it's true, some drug company is going to make scads of money.

 

[oz_doc]

5 yrs from lab animal studies to commercially available for humans is an incredibly short period of time. I would be very sceptical of this till I saw some good peer reviewed research on it. Based purely on your age i think its more likely that you have type 2 diabetes and its very unlikely that one drug will ever be able to cure all types of diabetes. By all means follow his potential development up but id be very careful of pinning too many hopes on it.

 

[Shepherd 2]

Diabetes is a disease of the pancreas. I doubt that we will see such a dramatic break through without a lot more fanfare. Meantime keep up with current treatments which are usually very effective.
Shep+

 

[KennyD]

Ok Guys .... Here is an article regarding the "Cure" that I was talking about ... Maybe; this guy is on to something ... ?

Lettuce May Be The Next Big Diabetes Treatment
Posted: Wednesday, August 08, 2007



Capsules of insulin produced in genetically modified lettuce could hold the key to restoring the body's ability to produce insulin and help millions of Americans who suffer from insulin-dependent diabetes, according to University of Central Florida biomedical researchers.

A team of scientists at the University of Central Florida thought it could be, and their research is causing a lot of excitement in the medical community.

A ground, dried lettuce pile can contain enough insulin to treat Type one diabetes in six to eight mice.
"We have produced insulin in plant cells -- specifically lettuce -- and orally deliver the lettuce directly in capsules," said Henry Daniell, a professor at UCF.

Dr. Henry Daniell says Type one diabetes is an autoimmune disease. The body doesn't recognize the protein and attacks insulin and insulin-producing cells. This eventually destroys the pancreas, meaning patients will need to be on insulin for life.

But, Daniell said that after eight weeks, the body of a mouse understood insulin was food.
"Once it stops fighting, the pancreas comes back alive because there are a lot of stem cells in pancreas. It's repopulated," Daniell said.

That means patients wouldn't have to take insulin the rest of their lives.

"Once it's put inside a plant cell and when it's ingested in the stomach, that plant cell is surrounded by a cell wall and the cell wall protects it from amino acids in the stomach and also from enzymes for digesting. But, when the plant cell reaches the gut, bacteria pokes holes in the plant cell wall and releases the insulin," Daniell said.

Daniell said the capsules could be used to prevent diabetes before there are any symptoms, treat the disease in later stages, and even eliminate it completely."

"When this is absorbed, we anticipate that this methodology would cure diabetes and not simply provide temporary relief," Daniell said.

It is also more cost-effective. Insulin costs Americans billons of dollars, but by eliminating the fermentation and purification process, Dr. Daniell's insulin capsules will cost pennies to produce.
Daniell said the next step is human clinical trials. He said he expects to enter the third phase in about two years, and that would be open to anyone with Type one diabetes

Once complete, the capsules will be ready for FDA approval.

The National Institutes of Health provided 2 million U.S. dollars to fund the study. The findings are reported in Plant Biotechnology Journal.


Source: Diabetes In Control

 

[cityboy-stl]

It is also more cost-effective. Insulin costs Americans billons of dollars, but by eliminating the fermentation and purification process, Dr. Daniell's insulin capsules will cost pennies to produce.

It cost Americans billions, billions that are being made by drug companies that produce it. And this is exactly why, even if it works, it will be suppressed and those corporations who really now run our government will get it banned.

 

[oz_doc]

This is a PR piece not a medical article but i must say i find this uninspiring, there are plenty of technologies available that could transport insulin safely past the stomachs acidic environment but no one has yet been able to produce an insulin that is absorbed orally. Also working from first principles it is counter intuitive that supllying exogenous insulin would switch back on insulin secreting cells in the pancreas, the body's endocrine systems work on finely balanced feedback systems if you supply insulin then the body naturally down regulates its own production.

But again this is a PR/news article and I will withhold judgement till I see some science.

 

[Diego_Ryan]

I did hear something about this in the news, but they mentioned something about finding a new gene, there was no mention of a lettuce.