September 27, 2006
Research: Cure
Question from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA:
I saw some research scientists talking about a possible diabetes cure via destruction of killer T cells. Could somebody explain this to me? If islets could get regenerated after killing defective T cells and in turn block the autoimmune attack, why didn’t we see islet regeneration occur in people who had beta cell transplants and took immunosuppression agents? Wouldn’t immunosuppression agents already block all immune attacks including autoimmune attack?
Answer:
So far, the body is just too smart and has “memory” of what originally destroyed the beta cells in the first place. The “cure” would come if we could SAFELY alter the immune system so that the beta cells would not be recognizable or the learned turned-on behavior of the immune system could be modified to no longer attack. This is a key part of the past few decades of research, but it is very complicated and difficult to actually make it happen.
SB
