Type 1 diabetes: Is the disease curable?

Diabetes mellitus is a widespread disease: many people all over the world suffer from diabetes, which is divided into different types. Although fewer people in Germany are struggling with type 1 diabetes, there are still a lot of people struggling with it: According to Deutsche Diabetes Hilfe, there are around 372,000 people who are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and are struggling with the autoimmune disease. How do experts assess the chances of a final cure? And what approaches are already available in 2024? Doctors answer important questions.

Cure Type 1 Diabetes: Suffering due to an autoimmune disease

Type 1 diabetes is one of almost 100 known autoimmune diseases German medical journal explained. Although there is progress now and then, according to the specialist portal, there is still “no curative therapy” that can finally cure a condition such as type 1 diabetes. Incidentally, treatment is referred to as curation when it aims to completely restore a patient’s health. That makes it clear gbe-bund.dea portal operated by the Federal Statistical Office.

The reason why people suffer from type 1 diabetes in the first place is due to an autoimmune disease: In type 1 diabetes, the beta cells are attacked and destroyed by the body’s own immune system, which is what the term autoimmunity is based on. Because there is a lack of insulin, the organism’s blood sugar level rises rapidly, which, if left untreated, leads to a diabetic coma, which can be fatal. explains Heiko Lickert on the website of the German Ministry of Education.

According to the information, the professor holds the chair for beta cell biology at the Faculty of Medicine at the Technical University of Munich, director of the Institute of Diabetes and Regeneration Research (IDR) and adjunct professor at the Institute of Stem Cell Research (ISF) at the Helmholtz Zentrum München.

Is type 1 diabetes curable? Doctors develop solutions

The doctor lets it be known that type 1 diabetes can now be easily treated. However, this is not the same as a cure: “For patients, this means having to measure their blood sugar several times a day and injecting themselves with insulin,” explains Lickert. After all, administering insulin requires a lot of time and monitoring, and side effects cannot be ruled out.

However, the scientist is working on a project that could make it unnecessary for people with type 1 diabetes to regularly inject insulin in the future. The solution is islet cell transplantation. The Munich Helmholtz Research Center explains the progress in stem cell therapy on its website: First of all, the loss of insulin-producing beta cells in the so-called “islets of Langerhans” of the pancreas is said to be the cause of type 1 diabetes.

How does the medical endeavor to cure type 1 diabetes work? “For many years, researchers have been working on generating functional islet cells from stem cells from healthy human donors for cell transplantation therapy,” describes the institute. According to the information, the process is currently being tested in initial clinical studies on humans. “Stem cell-based replacement therapy has shown promise as an alternative approach to restoring islet function in diabetic patients.”

Even an organ transplant of the entire pancreas from a donor is, according to the Diabetesinformationsportal possible, but associated with some risks. However, according to the information, it is a “major surgical procedure that, like all operations, involves certain risks,” explains the portal.

Type 1 diabetes: hope for a cure thanks to stem cell therapy

Scientists at the Helmholtz Diabetes Center are currently investigating methods that could solve a well-known problem in medicine: protecting transplanted islet cells from the recipient’s immune system so that they can become a realistic alternative to insulin therapy for patients.

As with an organ transplant, the recipient’s immune system can react to newly transplanted islet cells and reject them with antibodies. As the institute explainspatients undergoing an islet transplant must use long-term immunosuppression to combat this danger with the associated destruction of the transplanted cells by the immune system.

As Katharina Warncke, senior physician at the Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine in Munich, explained to us upon request, in her opinion it will take a long time before the method is actually used in practice. This also applies to other healing methods: “In my opinion, it is unlikely that T1D (Anm. d. Red.: Diabetes mellitus Typ 1) can be cured today, tomorrow or in a year, but there are interesting approaches for those affected,” says the doctor, who is also a scientist at the Helmholtz Center in Munich.

Healing from type 1 diabetes: hope thanks to medication and insulin pumps

Warncke explains that there are “promising methods” that can lead to significant improvement. The doctor highlights two approaches:

She describes the Teplizumab drug developed in the USA as “groundbreaking”. It is a preventative measure that can delay the development and onset of type 1 diabetes. Immunotherapy is therefore aimed at people who are already at high risk of developing type 1 diabetes. “Although you might not be able to completely cure diabetes, you could significantly improve your metabolism,” explains Warncke. The active ingredient teplizumab can be used to delay the rapid progression of the disease, “for both children and adults,” says Warncke. However, according to her, there is still no approval in Europe.
Another promising approach is the use of innovative insulin pumps that are connected to a blood sugar sensor. The device reacts to the blood sugar value and controls insulin regulation automatically. The only weak point at the moment is food intake, which requires a manual reaction from the patient.

Can type 1 diabetes be cured? “Combination of different approaches”

According to Kálmán Bódis, specialist at the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetology at the University Hospital Düsseldorf, a complete cure for type 1 diabetes is a “complex goal, the timing of which depends on further developments in the various research approaches.”

When asked, the researcher at the clinical study center of the German Diabetes Center (DDZ) explains to us that, in his opinion, there are “various promising approaches” that are being intensively researched. Everyone has the potential to make significant progress in curing type 1 diabetes. “But it is still unclear which approach will ultimately be most successful,” explains the human scientist. In addition to those mentioned, gene therapy is also a promising method for him:

It acts loudly Diabetes-Deutschland.de about a form of therapy to treat insulin deficiency using “targeted manipulation of genetic material”. With this method, the genes generated in the laboratory are introduced into corresponding target cells. According to Bódis, it is likely “that a combination of approaches will be required to cure type 1 diabetes.”

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