STEM cells could hold the key to curing type 1 diabetes, a study suggests.
A new treatment freed three patients from daily insulin injections, the “remarkable” research showed.
GettyPeople with type 1 diabetes normally have to monitor their blood sugar throughout the day and inject themselves with the hormone to keep levels in check[/caption]
The therapy — called VX-880 — improved blood sugar control in all six patients treated on the trial.
Professor Trevor Reichman from Toronto General Hospital in Canada said it could change the lives of hundreds of thousands of Brits with the condition.
He said: “These results are truly remarkable and offer hope of a life-changing therapy for people who suffer from the relentless life-long burden of type 1 diabetes.
“All patients who have been treated with VX-880 have shown improvement across all measures of glucose control, including reduction or even elimination of external insulin use.”
Around 220,000 Brits live with type 1 diabetes, including actor James Norton and former Prime Minister Theresa May.
The lifelong condition destroys cells in the pancreas that produce the hormone insulin, which helps control blood sugar levels.
Patients normally have to monitor their blood sugar throughout the day and inject themselves with the hormone to keep levels in check.
Unlike type 2 diabetes, there is nothing you can do to prevent yourself or others developing type 1 diabetes.
There is currently no cure but researchers are currently working on ways to develop new treatments.
The latest study was presented at the Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Hamburg.
Patients were given a single infusion of VX-880 and monitored to check for adverse reactions, insulin levels and blood glucose levels.
One patient stopped needing insulin jabs nine months after the infusion and has remained insulin independent after two years.
The patient had lived with severe type 1 diabetes for 42 years before the trial and was injecting 34 units of insulin a day previously.
Another achieved insulin independence after six months but had to start taking four units a day after 15 months.
The third stopped needing jabs after around six months as well.
The treatment was developed by London and Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
It involves growing the insulin-producing cells that are destroyed by type 1 diabetes in a lab and transplanting them into patients.
A larger trial is set to take place at King’s College Hospital in Camberwell, south London.