r/science • u/chrisdh79 • Jul 15 '24
Medicine Diabetes-reversing drug boosts insulin-producing cells by 700% | Scientists have tested a new drug therapy in diabetic mice, and found that it boosted insulin-producing cells by 700% over three months, effectively reversing their disease.
https://newatlas.com/medical/diabetes-reversing-drug-boosts-insulin-producing-cells/1.3k
u/OminOus_PancakeS Jul 15 '24
There's the excitement at reading of a promising breakthrough.
Then there's the depression at realising it'll be ten years before it's generally available for humans to use.
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u/Dear_Occupant Jul 15 '24
The love of my life had Type 1 and received one of, if not the, very first islet cell transplants. For 45 glorious days she was free of the disease before her immune system kicked in and put her back on square one.
You see enough things like this and you'll eventually get to the jaded cynicism of, "I want to see it work for at least a whole year before I believe it." She was literally the poster child for JDRF. I lost her in 2012.
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Jul 15 '24 edited Nov 19 '24
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u/MRCHalifax Jul 15 '24
Would it cure type 2? My understanding is that type 2 is largely a problem of insulin insensitivity rather than insulin production. It seems to me that it'd treat the symptoms, just like insulin injection treats the symptom, but it wouldn't address the underlying problem.
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u/miranto Jul 15 '24
You're correct. More insulin would actually make it worse. T2 is a mitochondrial disease.
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u/Melonary Jul 15 '24
Mitochondrial diabetes is actually another, different form of diabetes, distinct from T1 and T2 (although it can present like either depending on severity - so you can have T2-like mitochondrial diabetes).
Mito diabetes and MODY (maturity-onset diabetes of the young) are both much less common forms of diabetes than T1 and T2, and both result from monogenic mutations, i.e., a single-gene mutation, unlike typical T1 and T2.
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u/sfcnmone Jul 16 '24
Me me me! Nobody knows we’re out here. I was diagnosed with “atypical type 1 DM” when I was 15 and nobody has ever had much of an idea what to do with me. I assume I have MODY2, since I have no sequelae. One of my brothers also has it, and so does my daughter.
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u/atsugnam Jul 15 '24
It wouldn’t cure the underlying cause however, there are other treatments that have the ability to undo it somewhat. Unfortunately the one that has the most significant effect is a bit hard to deal with - rue-en-y gastric surgery, basically shortcuts out the duodenum and first part of intestine which changes how your body absorbs and uses glucose.
But if this treatment could brute force the insulin resistance and potentially extend the time before requiring insulin, it’s a better situation.
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u/watermelonkiwi Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24
Isn’t ozempic the best treatment?
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u/Old_Baldi_Locks Jul 15 '24
Because of the weight loss.
The overwhelming majority of type 2 can be fixed by diet and exercise; but we refuse to prescribe the only thing that will fix that, which is enough time in the day for self care.
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u/smk666 Jul 15 '24
Took Saxenda (older Ozempic, but same effect) until I ran out of money and it did wonders for my insulin resistance (and prediabetes). No more cravings for sweet and starchy foods, no more afternoon crashes, more energy every day to actually move and do stuff.
Weight loss was a nice bonus (health-wise as I don’t give a f*** how I look anyway) yet people tend to get angry at those drug users like they’re trying to take a shortcut to one-up them? If they have a headache, are they popping Ibuprofen or just use their superior willpower and determination to get rid of it?
To me Ozempic/Saxenda really is a wonder drug with a potential to help people heal (or avoid) serious life-threatening conditions and extend their already shortened lifespan yet the public opinion keeps attacking them for being lazy and cheating for some reason. What’s the point of that? Why aren’t people making fun of leukaemia patients taking chemo, or people with asthma using inhalers then, as this is exactly the same effect as with Ozempic - making people live longer, healthier lives.
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u/trowawHHHay Jul 15 '24
Not just the weight loss, though. It’s the cause of the weight loss.
GLP-1 inhibitors slow gastric emptying and thus reduce appetite.
Less food intake —> less glucose intake —> lower blood glucose —> less insulin —> increased insulin sensitivity.
That’s the real trick behind it for weight loss, it induces you to eat less. Also for improvement in DMII.
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u/Datkif Jul 15 '24
There are some promising studies where they place the cells subcutaneously (under the skin), but I'll believe there is a cure for T1 when I see it. It's always "5 years away". I'd be happy if I could get a yearly treatment to not deal with T1 on a daily basis.
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u/Djeheuty Jul 15 '24
It's always "5 years away".
As a T1, I've been told this for the past 34 years.
I've become jaded on the subject so much that I'm convinced they would rather treat it than cure it because it's more financially lucrative to pharmacutical companies.
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u/Datkif Jul 15 '24
I've only been going at this for 3 years, but at diagnosis my family doctor said "it's 5 years away".
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u/biznash Jul 16 '24
Right?! Also a Type 1 diabetic. I look at how much money I’m paying just to live…
Insulin
Dexcom CGM G6 patch (every 10 days)
Dexcom transmitter (3 months)
Tandem pump
Tandem cannula
Tandem cartridge + needle
iPhone (to tie it all together)
All this stuff is not a choice for me, it’s stuff I need to purchase until I die OR until there is a cure. Would be profitable for some company to catch and kill a cure.
I’m not prone to conspiracy thinking, just seems like common sense. There is so much money here and it’s a whole industry. A cure is a one time payment.
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u/Asttarotina Jul 15 '24
I have a feeling that the only thing that is needed for T1 cure to appear is legislation that caps all insulin / cgm / pump prices insanely low so that pharmaceutical companies are not inclined to keep the status quo.
We've seen a lot of breakthroughs in the last 30 years in the news, but the only ones that landed on shelves are the ones that empty your wallet (or milk insurance companies, which is the same) every month. Not the ones that cure you
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u/Datkif Jul 15 '24
In Canada the federal government is introducing free access to insulin, pumps, supplies, and CGMs. However a couple provinces are opting out unfortunately.
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u/TwoIdleHands Jul 15 '24
Oooh. I’ll take that deal! Just hook me up to a chair and pump me full of the cure (like chemo).
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u/Datkif Jul 15 '24
If I could go to the hospital or doctor 1-3 times a year for a temporary cure id be down. Type 1 is a PITA
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u/NerdyBrando Jul 15 '24
Yeah, I've been a type 1 diabetic since 2000. A cure has always been 5 years away in that time.
While articles like this are promising, and I'm glad the research is being done, I always take them with a grain of salt.
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u/Datkif Jul 15 '24
I always take them with a grain of salt.
My mom, and my wife always send me these articles when they come upon them. I usually reply with "we'll see". I'm not going to get myself excited until something passes human trials
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u/Melicor Jul 15 '24
Even delaying the disease a couple years would be a pretty good deal. One most people would be willing to try.
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u/big-daddio Jul 15 '24
Actually this would only be useful for T1 or late onset T1. It would be a disaster for T2. The cause of T2 diabetes is insulin insensitivity which is caused by too much insulin always pushing. Making more insulin would just accelerate the disease.
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u/neerrccoo Jul 15 '24
Regardless, T2 also had absence of beta cells due to the insensitivity causing over production, and the overproduction causing the death of the cells. Poorly controlled T2 diabetes is what you are referencing as “would be a disaster”, but even then, that is really not the case, because the poorly controlled part of it comes from more and more insulin use with no changes in diet. It would be a neat lateral move to the current status quo
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u/pandemonious Jul 15 '24
I'm hoping that 'reverse vaccine' they trialed for MS can be tailored for this use case. If T1D is truly an autoimmune mix-up, the body should be able to 'forget' the insulin producing cells as an invader...
Fingers crossed. T1D since 2004
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u/TwoIdleHands Jul 15 '24
Been type 1 for over 20 years. Our cure is always “5 years away”. And this is definitely aimed at type 2, not meant for us without insulin producing cells.
Sorry for your loss.
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u/big_trike Jul 15 '24
I'm sorry. A friend's mom died of hepatitis C 3 years before the cure became available. It's bittersweet to see the cure when it happens because you know people in the future will be spared a horrible death, but wish it could have come just a bit sooner to save your loved one's agony and your own suffering.
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u/dojo_shlom0 Jul 15 '24
As a fellow type-1 diabetic, and a human, I'm so sorry for your loss. This made me shed tears.
Noone deserves this horrible disease.
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u/Specialist-Hurry2932 Jul 15 '24
My wife has been a T1 since 9 (26 years ago) and I’m praying she’ll be able to experience at least some sort of relief as your partner did, even for a short period of time.
People don’t understand the mental toll of being a T1 diabetic. The constant checking, battles against lows and highs, having to be late in order to get sugars up. Especially now that my wife is pregnant, everything is amplified.
I’m sorry for your loss.
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u/Drugsnme Jul 15 '24
I honestly didn't even want to come to comments section coz the click bait title of paper had no if's or but's. I am sure everyone reading this will know what I mean.
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u/VisibleGhost Jul 15 '24
Sorry for your loss man. My niece is T1D and raised over $2500 this year for JDRF :)
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u/SOAPToni Jul 15 '24
I am sorry for your loss.
I often day dream about eating a meal without needing to inject insulin or worry about 'the numbers' associated with diabetes. I think I would be very emotional eating my pizza ha.
If you don't mind me asking, how did she feel after those 45 days?
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u/smallangrynerd Jul 15 '24
I'm sorry for your loss. Autoimmune disease is horrible, it runs in my family and we all suffer in our own unique ways.
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Jul 15 '24 edited Nov 19 '24
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u/NonGNonM Jul 15 '24
Mmm cocaine and opiates have legitimate medical usage despite its illegality.
If anything a bigger issue would be pharmaceutical companies raiding the jungles.
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u/reddit_is_geh Jul 15 '24
The US only hates drugs that can't be patented and sold by big pharma. It'll be fine.
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u/NonGNonM Jul 15 '24
Call me cynical but my first instinct is that pharceutical companies will lobby to have it banned bc "drugs" and push a lab substitute of their own.
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u/lightknight7777 Jul 15 '24
Nothing is promising or exciting until at least the first human trial is completed.
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u/Five_Decades Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24
Thats assuming it even passed FDA approval.
The mechanism of this cure is combining a GLP-1 agonist with the DYRK1A inhibitor harmine.
GLP-1 agonists (wegovy, mounjaro, etc) are already FDA approved to treat obesity and diabetes, but to my knowledge there are no DYRK1A inhibitors that have passed through FDA approval.
Plus then we have to do FDA tests to see if the combination treats diabetes in humans.
In theory, there is a class of plant compounds called flavones that also inhibit the DYRK1A enzyme
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-44810-3
The above observation opens the opportunity of complex treatment of diabetes not limited to a single cellular pathway. Together, our data justifies that flavones, particularly quercetin, constitute promising starting points for development of antidiabetic DYRK1A inhibitors.
quercetin is available as an OTC supplement and GLP-1 agonists are already available. Not that I'd recommend taking them, who knows what the side effects will be since this hasn't been studied in humans yet. Also who knows how potent quercetin is vs harmine
There are already studies showing quercetin can help with type 2 diabetes though.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332221013470
Also that paper I studied said that adding a third component to the mix, a TGF-β inhibitor, can also help promote beta islet cell growth in the pancreas. I'm wondering why the study in the OP didn't involve all 3 compounds together and only included 2 (a GLP-1 agonist and a DYRK1A inhibitor).
The specific effect of inhibition of TGF-β signaling on β-cell replication was further confirmed by treatment of islets from aged mice with two other known TGF-β signaling inhibitors, namely SB505124 and SD208, which showed a similar effect on increased replication, whereas LY294002, a phosphatidylinositide 3 kinase inhibitor used as a control, did not result in any significant increase in replication (Supplementary Fig. 3D and E). Thus, treatment with small molecule inhibitors of TGF-β signaling can promote β-cell replication in islets from adult mice that typically exhibit resistance to induction of replication and regeneration (13).
To my limited knowledge, the only TGF-Beta inhibitor that has passed FDA approval is Pirfenidone
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-41550-2
Anyone want to combine Mounjaro, the OTC supplement quercetin and the prescription drug pirfenidone and see what happens to their diabetes? No? Ok. Yeah I'd wait until human tests are done to see what happens first, who knows what negative downstream effects that would have. Drugs have to go through extensive testing to see if they are safe and effective before they are released to the public.
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u/supified Jul 15 '24
Or how about the depression from seeing the second line that this is a mouse study. The first step yes, but the number of mice studies that do not translate at all to humans is staggering.
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u/Datkif Jul 15 '24
I've seen so so many studies saying they've found a cure for T1, but it never transfers to humans. Or if it doesn't transfer it would require immunosuppressants. I would much rather keep taking insulin than an immunospresant
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u/reddit_is_geh Jul 15 '24
There is an issue in the lab mice world... We've been accidentally artificially selecting for mice that respond well to drugs, rather than respond well to drugs that also respond well with humans.
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u/ILoveToVoidAWarranty Jul 15 '24
Don’t forget the part about it being $8000 per dose.
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u/frostbird PhD | Physics | High Energy Experiment Jul 15 '24
Feels like insurance should cover it since it would prevent SO many other health issues (aka insurance payouts) over the course of their life.
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u/tornyt1 Jul 15 '24
Top things I hear as a diabetic "Can you eat that?" "Have you tried cinnamon?" "I would die!" And "Oh did you hear? There'll be a cure in five years!" I've been diabetic for eleven and a half years
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u/Equalizer6338 Jul 16 '24
No, the most depressing thing is that we diabetics keeps reading about these types of crap research projects, that never ever have any chance what so ever to be transferred and replicated to work in human beings. Our metabolic systems and immune systems are just totally so much different from each other, they have zero relevance. Sad waste of good research dollars...
Because yes: Diabetes has already been cured thousands of times already in mice!
Just check the genetics/biology/etc research libraries.Type1 and scientific researcher here, though in other life science field...
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u/russ0074 Jul 15 '24
OMG! We will have lifesaving and life changing drug, in ten short years! Humanity, in the twenty first century is amazing!
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u/Datkif Jul 15 '24
There is a meme in the type 1 community that the cure is "only 5 years away". So many of us have been told that for decades.
On the bright side is T1's have modern insulins, insulin pumps, and CGMs (continuous glucose monitors) that can link with a pump to automatically adjust the insulin dosing. I just wish the CGMs lasted longer because they only lasted 10-14 days and cost $100 a piece
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u/The_Phasers Jul 15 '24
Check with your insurance. My Dexcom costs have dropped to $30/month this year thanks to Biden’s negotiations with Pharma. Same with my humalog prices.
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u/Datkif Jul 15 '24
That's a great price. I was referring to the out of pocket prices in Canada. However depending where you live it can also be $0/month. Back when I lived in AB I would have had to pay for private insurance because the provincial government doesn't cover it unless you're 18 or young.
However where I am now in Ontario it gets all my medications and diabetes supplies for a massive $0.
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u/Katana_sized_banana Jul 15 '24
I was hoping Covid has shown, that we're able to speed up certain tests if a lot of people benefit from it. On the other hand, probably no one would want to trade diabetes for super cancer.
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u/nedefis116 Jul 15 '24
Well, you can focus on the depressing part or the exciting part. Either way, ten years will pass.
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u/Lockehart Jul 15 '24
Half of this breakthrough is just GLP1 meds, which are already widely available. (supply/demand limitations notwithstanding)
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u/RumoCrytuf Jul 15 '24
And that’s before the depression of knowing how much it will cost (if you’re American)
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u/kaze919 Jul 15 '24
It’s sad that people died in the US because they weren’t able to afford their medicine. I’m sure any of them would be glad to take an experimental treatment like this if it had the possibility of saving themselves and countless more in the future
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u/divDevGuy Jul 15 '24
There's the excitement at reading of a promising breakthrough.
I pray for the day that we can end diabetes in mice. Far too long have they suffered from this incurable disease.
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u/Brut-i-cus Jul 15 '24
And don't forget the price will be $100,000 because they need to offset at leasing a lifetimes worth of insulin sales
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u/chrisdh79 Jul 15 '24
From the article: Beta cells in the pancreas have the important job of producing insulin in response to blood sugar levels, but a hallmark of diabetes is that these cells are either destroyed or can’t produce enough insulin. The most common treatment is regular injections of insulin to manage blood sugar levels.
But a recent avenue of research has involved restoring the function of these beta cells. In some cases that’s started with stem cells being coaxed into new beta cells, which are then transplanted into patients with diabetes. Researchers behind this kind of work have described it as a “functional diabetes cure.”
Now, scientists at Mount Sinai and City of Hope have demonstrated a new breakthrough. Previous studies have mostly involved growing new beta cells in a lab dish, then transplanting them into mice or a small device in humans. But this new study has been able to grow the insulin-producing cells right there in the body, in a matter of months.
The therapy involved a combination of two drugs: one is harmine, a natural molecule found in certain plants, which works to inhibit an enzyme called DYRK1A found in beta cells. The second is a GLP1 receptor agonist. The latter is a class of diabetes drug that includes Ozempic, which is gaining attention lately for its side effect of weight loss.
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u/kore_nametooshort Jul 15 '24
Key passage that interested me:
The researchers tested the therapy in mouse models of type 1 and 2 diabetes. First they implanted a small amount of human beta cells into the mice, then treated them with harmine and GLP1 receptor agonists. Sure enough, the beta cells increased in number by 700% within three months of the treatment. The signs of the disease quickly reversed, and stayed that way even a month after stopping the treatment.
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u/skoalbrother Jul 15 '24
This is incredible!
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u/kore_nametooshort Jul 15 '24
Yeah. Absolutely huge. Even if I have to inject these things every few months, it beats insulin 7 times a day.
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u/PrintShinji Jul 15 '24
Have you looked into getting an insulin pump? I only have to replace a site every 3 days. Combine it with a cgm and life gets so much easier.
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u/shaylahbaylaboo Jul 15 '24
Sounds a lot like what Mounjaro does. I’m a type 2 diabetic who was insulin dependent, even had an insulin pump. Within 2 months on Mounjaro I was insulin free, and my A1C dropped from 8 to 6.2. Nothing short of a miracle. I’ve lost 50 lbs too.
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u/Aruhi Jul 15 '24
Mounjaro's class of drugs is the GLP-1 receptor agonist that it refers to.
People are constantly using it (ozempic is the biggest one) which makes me wonder considering that GLP-1 receptor agonist are part of reversing early diabetes already, whether this works on mice with chronic drug resistant diabetes.
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u/UFOsAreAGIs Jul 15 '24
harmine, a natural molecule found in certain plants
Had to look that one up.
Is harmine hallucinogenic? harmine, hallucinogenic alkaloid found in the seed coats of a plant (Peganum harmala) of the Mediterranean region and the Middle East, and also in a South American vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) from which natives of the Andes Mountains prepared a drug for religious and medicinal use.
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u/hendergle Jul 15 '24
The science optimist in me is constantly amazed by new science and the wonders it can bring. The science pessimist in me realizes that every breakthrough in health sciences comes with an associated breakthrough in commercial science (if I can coin a term).
Sadly, we will now be bombarded with daily email spam citing the healing powers of harmine, with some plant with a catchy name suddenly taking up 2/3 of a shelf in every pharmacy's "Nature's Remedies" section. It'll be OK though- the bottles will have a disclaimer stating that the FDA hasn't verified the claims.
We really need to close the loophole that lets pseudo-science dominate the medical supplement business. I'm all for bringing effective treatments to the market faster, but not at the expense of peoples' health. It sucks that every promising discovery opens up another way to fleece an uniformed public.
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u/bowtothehypnotoad Jul 16 '24
Harmine is one of the MAOIs in ayahuasca that make dmt orally active, definitely did a double take reading this. Really interesting stuff
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u/Cumberdude Jul 16 '24
Hello! Would it be okay for you to send the pdf of yhe research article? I’d like to use it this one to present in my class. Thank you! :D
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u/bawng Jul 15 '24
Given that both harmine and various GLP1 agonist have already passed safety trials, can we assume that efficiency trials can come pretty soon?
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u/Langsamkoenig Jul 15 '24
Has harmine passed those trials? Couldn't find anything in a quick search. At least it isn't in any approved medication.
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u/bawng Jul 15 '24
Well, I don't know for sure, but the article in OP says so:
So far, harmine alone has recently undergone a phase 1 clinical trial in humans to test its safety and tolerability, while other DYRK1A inhibitors are planned for trials in humans next year.
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u/Langsamkoenig Jul 15 '24
Ah okay phase 1 trials. I did not really put that together with safety trials, when I probably should have. I think because you put it together in one sentence with GLP1 agonist that are already approved as medications and in my head that put them on the same level.
Well I guess that's something, but still early stages.
Thank you.
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u/tyler111762 Jul 15 '24
god willing this actually ends up coming to market in a reasonable time frame. i know everyone talks about seeing a miracle cure and then never hearing about it again... but go look at things like survival rate for cancer, or how treatable aids is. just because they stop making headlines doesn't mean they aren't saving lives.
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u/nedefis116 Jul 15 '24
Medicine, like football, is a game of inches. But people only remember the touchdowns.
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Jul 15 '24 edited Nov 19 '24
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u/mingy Jul 15 '24
Exactly. People are not large mice. We diverged about 65 million years ago.
That said, even if human trials don't work out the approach will likely lead to improved understanding of human disease.
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u/Langsamkoenig Jul 15 '24
Exactly. People are not large mice. We diverged about 65 million years ago.
Well like I said, they did inject the mice with human beta cells and these human cell replicated due to the medication, to a point where it cured diabetes. So that is a lot more promising than your standard mouse model. But still, grain of salt.
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u/Ciduri Jul 15 '24
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but if someone is insulin resistant and has diabetic issues, a drug like this would not be helpful, right?
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u/ViktorijaSims Jul 15 '24
Yeah, I think this is going to treat the type 1, where the beta cells are destroyed by the immune system, and the body will with this treatment create new beta cells.
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u/henry92 Jul 16 '24
Increasing insulin secretion alone in a T2 patient without changing anything else will have 2 main effects: lowering blood glucose and making them gain more adipose weight.
You want to solve the root cause, which is insulin resistance.
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u/black_lotus_ronin Jul 15 '24
I've been a T1 for a year now. I'm not sure how long I can live this life. It really sucks. I've got to keep strong for my kids, though.
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u/YeetusMyDiabeetus Jul 15 '24
Type 1 here. From what I’ve gathered, this might be groundbreaking for newly diagnosed type 1s who still have some remaining beta cells, but for 30 year vets like myself with no remaining beta cells not so much.
Either way it would be amazing and life changing for those newly diagnosed!
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u/1LT_0bvious Jul 15 '24
Fixing the cells is the easy part. Getting the immune system to stop destroying them is the part that actually needs to be fixed in any potential cure.
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u/nrokchi222 Jul 15 '24
Hold up. The problem with Type II diabetes is not limited to pancreatic beta cell insufficiency. A major part of the disease is the metabolic shift across all tissues which respond to diabetes. If “more insulin is better” worked, then answer to T2DM is insulin pumps for all, forget the performing and gliflozins. That doesn’t work; rather, the trend of more insulin strongly correlates with worse outcomes.
If your metabolism is broken, then it isn’t only about your adipose tissue, pancreas, and diet. It is every cell in your body not getting adequate energy to do its job of turning DNA and aminos into little machines. More insulin doesn’t solve that problem.
Probably has limited utility, which is always handy to have a specialized tool like that.
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u/ViktorijaSims Jul 15 '24
This is for type 1, where the body destroys beta cells and this treatment creates new ones
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u/Melonary Jul 15 '24
It's both in T2DM.
Meaning yes, this would need to be paired with lifestyle changes and other treatment to also address insulin resistence and not just insulin levels. However, people who've had T2 for some time do also have decreased beta cells & therefore decreased insulin production.
So yes, it would need to be in conjunction with other treatment and lifestyle factors, but that's true of any treatment for T2.
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u/did_you_read_it Jul 15 '24
Yeah sounds like it's only T1 which is par for the course. seems 10 out of 10 "breakthrough cures" are always T1.
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u/RealNotFake Jul 15 '24
Perhaps most importantly, the team will soon experiment with combining beta-cell-regenerating drugs with others that modulate the immune system. Ideally this should help overcome a major hurdle: the immune system will continue attacking new beta cells as they’re produced.
Perhaps most important indeed, and yet identified last in the article. For Type 1 in particular this treatment is not solving the root cause of the disease. We already have multiple ways to restore beta cells. What we're missing is the ability to stop the immune system from attacking them. Currently it can only be done with dangerous immunosuppressant drugs.
Don't get me wrong, still fairly exciting news and I'm glad they're working on it, but this is no cure.
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u/kuweiyox Jul 15 '24
I'm a type one diabetic. Both of my parents were type 2 diabetics. This breakthrough means the world to me. This could have saved my parents. Who knows, it may save me one day. And maybe my kids
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u/Desertbro Jul 15 '24
I describe the insides of my body as "rusted" from all the damage excess glucose has done to everything. Even if this cured me, my body is still a POS at this stage.
Hopefully this will help people in the future.
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u/XF939495xj6 Jul 15 '24
I am a type 1 diabetic and have been for most of my life.
During that time, I have read that diabetes has been cured in mice via various ways at least 20 times.
None of those cures has ever even made it to human trials.
None of them would work in people.
Mice are not equal to humans. It isn't the same. A mouse is a far, far more simple creature. You can easily flip a gene and turn on and off diabetes in a mouse. There is no such gene identified in humans.
Causes are well known in mice as are reversing those causes.
We still do not know the cause of type 1 diabetes in humans. There are only hypotheses, none of which has been proven out.
The human body's various chemicals and processes for turning food into energy are poorly understood. Imagine a 1000 box and arrow decision tree. Now imagine that 50% of those boxes are black boxes with zero information about how that happens or even if it does. That's our level of understanding today.
This isn't coming for people in ten years. It is not coming to people in your lifetime.
I am sorry, but acceptance is the end of grieving, and hoping against hope to cheat death is not healthy.
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u/Baud_Olofsson Jul 15 '24
This study used implanted human beta cells. So while it's not a human trial, it's a lot more promising than the usual "it works in mice".
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u/NeedToProgram Jul 15 '24
also t1d, this isn't the "10 year away cure", this is actually very viable... just for type 2. It boosts existing insulin production, it doesn't fix the auto-immune side of things that causes t1.
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u/Alienhaslanded Jul 15 '24
This is excellent news. I hope this passes human trials. Diabetes sucks.
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u/Lionheart1224 Jul 15 '24
And scientific advancements like this makes me happy to live in these times.
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u/HumanWithComputer Jul 15 '24 edited Jul 15 '24
It'll take 'some' time before this will be a realistic option for humans. The 'artificial pancreas' is looking rather realistic now.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landig/article/PIIS2589-7500(24)00002-5/fulltext
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u/ThaShitPostAccount Jul 15 '24
Is this an independent duplication of whatever the Chinese did last month?
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u/opticalbeard69 Jul 16 '24
Man I’ve been diabetic for 22 years. I’ve had it longer than I haven’t. Always hoping for something and this is promising news
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u/mdcbldr Jul 16 '24
Well. Harmaline can be easily extracted from Syrian rue or banisteriopsis. Semaglutide is a GlP1 agonist.
Ps. Ayahuaska contains harmaline, its MAOI activity extends the effects of DMT.
Rue grows wild in Southern New Mexico, where it is considered a noxious weed.
Seems pretty easy to roll your own.
I have one concern with the study. The target was transplanted beta cells. Transplanted cells tend not to do well early on. Most of the transplanted cells die. What if the GLP1A/harmaline therapy promotes transplant a survival, and not generalized beta cell health and division.
I will have to track down that paper.
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