100 year old vaccine, bacillus Calmette-Guérin to be tested as a cure for type 1 diabetes
A promising vaccine that has the potential to reverse the symptoms of type I diabetes,an autoimmune disease is heading on to a phase II trial, which will test the vaccine on humans with the chronic disease.
The vaccine bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) has succeeded in reversing type 1 diabetes in a trial among mice and in a phase I trial in 103 humans.
- The trial will last for five years and will test the effect of the vaccine on people with type 1 diabetes among adults between ages 18 to 60.
- The vaccine may be able to improve the disease in people who have small but detectable levels of insulin coming from their pancreas.
BCG FDA-approval status
- As vaccine for tuberculosis
- For bladder cancer treatment
Probable mechanism of action of BCG in type I diabetes
- Activate innate immunity in long-term diabetic subjects and modify the host’s aberrant autoimmune response
- Insulin-autoreactive T cells is specifically targeted and eliminated
In previous study, they were able to temporarily eliminate the abnormal white blood cells and provide a small return of insulin. But the study duration and vaccine frequency was less.
“Phase II trial will provide more frequent doses of the vaccine over a five year periods in 150 adults with the disease.”
Lead researcher Dr. Denise Faustman, director of immunobiology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), who is the brain behind this ambitious trial says,
“Type 1 diabetics are a pretty skeptical audience and there’s been a lot of disappointment from other research.”
Other research has looked at treating people with diabetes close to diagnosis
Faustman feels the present trial is ambitious because it is focusing on people who have had type 1 diabetes for many years and estimates that about one million people with type 1 diabetes still produce some insulin.
Hi
I found a great article about Dr Faustman’s phase II and FDA imposed methodology..
and they talk about importance of methodology to reverse type 1 diabetes or other chronic disease.
http://hdiabetes.com/blog/78-methodology-cure
For avoiding this type of situations he or she should always check blood pressure level through body
fat analyzer. Those affected only live until
their teenage years and sometimes to their early 20s.
These two interventions could lead to a more accurate reading of your blood pressure, and could make the difference between a diagnosis of high blood pressure, or not.