Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Market Gems:Stocks w/Strong Earnings and High Tech. Rank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elepet who wrote (100969)	6/7/2000 12:09:00 AM
From: Susan G	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 120523

This news could certainly affect the biotech sector as a whole... Cell Transplant May Offer Diabetes Cure -Study By Gene Emery Jun 6 7:24pm ET BOSTON (Reuters) - Canadian researchers said on Tuesday they have developed a cell transplant technique that eliminates the need for insulin injections in the treatment of diabetes. The development is so striking that the New England Journal of Medicine released the University of Alberta study almost two months early and put it on its Web site, nejm.org. Scientists injected pancreas cells near the liver in eight diabetes patients. The cells took up residence in the liver and began producing the long-lost insulin that controls blood sugar levels. If the results are confirmed in a larger study slated to begin this summer and doctors can find a better source for the cells, which must now be harvested from cadavers, it could mean the end of insulin-dependent diabetes, said Dr. James Shapiro, who led the study. ``This is going to be a tremendous advance,'' Shapiro told Reuters, ``certainly for people with type 1 diabetes,'' which is the most severe form of diabetes and usually appears in childhood. ``That's what has been unique about what we've been able to accomplish in the past 18 months,'' said Dr. Jonathan Lakey, a co-author of the study. ``Eight consecutive patients no longer need insulin shots.'' Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile onset diabetes, affects 500,000 to one million Americans, according to the American Diabetes Association. The long-term safety and effectiveness of the technique must still be established. In addition, the recipients must take a combination of three drugs designed to prevent the body from rejecting the transplanted cells. Those drugs increase the risk of cancer and infection. But serious diabetics may regard such risks as a small price to pay when the impact of the transplant is so dramatic. Shapiro said one of the eight patients who regularly fell into a diabetic coma, sometimes as often as three times a week, no longer needs insulin shots. ``I can now do things I never dreamed I would do, like teaching an entire morning or afternoon without stopping to eat a snack or testing my blood glucose, (or) going for walks when I want,'' said Mary Anna Kralj-Pokerznik, a junior high school teacher who is one of the eight volunteers. As soon as the pancreas cells are injected into the blood vessel leading to the liver, where the cells take up residence, they begin producing the long-lost insulin that controls blood sugar levels. ``It happens almost instantaneously'' once a critical mass of cells has been injected, Shapiro told Reuters. Lakey said, ``It's just the pinprick of a catheter going into the side of the body near the liver. We want to develop it as an outpatient procedure.'' Currently, it takes the cells of two pancreases, matched for blood type, to produce an apparent cure, said Lakey. Eventually, doctors hope to be able to cull enough cells from a single donated pancreas or find a way to grow the cells in the laboratory, making the shortage of organ donors irrelevant. ``That's where the next leap forward in this field is going to be,'' he said. The key to the researcher's success, Lakey said, has been a better method for extracting the cells from the donated pancreas and the use of three drugs, sirolimus, tacrolimus and daclizumab, to prevent rejection. Shapiro said that, over time, he hopes that the technique can be modified to require few, if any, anti-rejection drugs. The study will be published in the July 27 issue of the Journal. go2net.com