According to new research, one guy may be the first to be cured of Type 1 diabetes. What is the research's next step?

According to The New York Times, Vertex Pharmaceuticals' clinical study has been researching a therapy for decades. After thirty years and $50 million, the first patient has been cured.

Brian Shelton, now 64, had his first stem cell injection, which functioned like insulin-producing pancreatic cells that his body lacked.

His body now regulates its insulin and blood sugar levels on its own. "It's a whole new existence," Shelton added, according to The New York Times. "It's almost like a miracle."

Dr. Peter Butler, a diabetes expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, stated in the paper, "It is a spectacular result." "To be able to treat diabetes by replacing lost cells is similar to the miracle of insulin's discovery 100 years ago."

The trial will last five years and will involve 17 participants with severe Type 1 diabetes. This will provide an opportunity for 9 million individuals suffering from this condition to make a significant shift in their lives.

What exactly is Type 1 diabetes?

The pancreas does not produce enough insulin in Type 1 diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Without insulin, blood sugar can accumulate in the circulation rather than enter cells to be utilized for energy.

Type 1 diabetes is less frequent in adolescents, teenagers, and young adults, although it can occur at any age.

This illness puts people at a greater risk of nerve damage, which can lead to amputations, heart disease, stroke, visual issues like glaucoma and cataracts, and skin infections.

According to the World Health Organization, it was the tenth largest cause of death in 2019, accounting for 1.5 million fatalities that year.

What is the research's next step?

According to The Harvard Gazette, the cell infusion treatment now needs cells that are part of a class of immunosuppressants that suppress the immune system, according to professor Douglas Melton, whose group pioneered the science underlying the therapy.

These cells would be rejected by the body if immunosuppressants were not used. "We aim to find a technique to generate cells that are not detected as alien via genetic engineering," he stated.

Melton views this as an issue that can be solved: "When a woman produces a baby, that infant has two sets of DNA." It has genes from the mother's egg that are recognized as'self,' but it also has genes from the father that are identified as 'non-self.' Why does the fetus not cause the mother's body to reject it? If we can find it out, it will help us decide which genes to modify in our stem cell-derived islets so that they may be implanted in anyone," he added.

Skepticism is a good thing.

Dr. Scott Summers, chairman of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology at the University of Utah, believes there is still more work to be done and regards this study with skepticism.

"At this moment, we've only read about one patient's findings." The clinical experiment is currently underway, and the whole set of data will not be available for several years. The manuscript was not peer-reviewed. "A fierce debate is currently raging among scientists over whether it is ethical or proper to publish results so early in the study," he told the Deseret News.

The fact that it is a biotechnology firm allows for an important marketing feature. "It's unusual for a news release to appear so early in the research," he noted.

Summers had reservations about Melton as well. Despite being a brilliant scientist, he responded to a massive article five years ago. His team is said to have found a hormone that can increase the growth of insulin cells. Those findings, however, could not be repeated.

As a result, Melton did what any ethical scientist would do: he withdrew his study.

"This serves as a useful reminder that findings must be extensively assessed and repeated by numerous groups before being carved in stone," Summers said.

"Despite my reservations, I'm delighted," he added. "This discovery has the potential to change our knowledge and treatment of this insidious illness."