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Finnish Team Makes Diabetes Vaccine Breakthrough
jones_supa writes "A team working at Tampere University, Finland has discovered the virus that causes type 1 diabetes. The enterovirus penetrates the pancreas and destroys insulin-producing cells, eventually causing diabetes. Researchers have looked at more than a hundred different strains of the virus and pinpointed five that could cause diabetes. They believe they could produce a vaccine against those strains. One virus type has been identified to carry the biggest risk. A vaccine could also protect against its close relatives, to give the best possible effect. A similar enterovirus causes polio, which has been almost eradicated in many parts of the world thanks to vaccination programmes. A prototype diabetes vaccine has already been produced and tested on animals. Taking the vaccine through a clinical trial would cost some 700 million euros. Some funding is in place from the United States and from Europe, but more is required. Professor Heikki Hyöty says that money is the biggest obstacle in moving to testing in humans, but he sees that people are interested in their research and that the funding problems will ultimately be solved."
I nodded this in the firehose because it looked interesting.
There's not much information in the linked article. Can anyone give us more info? Anyone who reads Finnish care to comment on the source - is it reliable, are the researchers legitimate?
progress toward making a vaccine is good and all but when will they finnish it. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
A great advancement, but there are undoubtedly many causes of type 1 diabetes, many of which have been described in the scientific literature. Just a little bit of an overstatement to say, "the virus that causes type 1 diabetes," has been discovered.
It is worth noting this is for type 1 diabetes, not type 2 which is the modern plague resulting largely from bad diet and inactivity. That said, if you know somebody for whom diabetes is a lifelong affliction since childhood, and kids who need shots for diabetes, that's type 1. A cure would be a huge deal.
But i wouldn't bet on it.
Diabetic treatment and supplies are a multi-billion dollars a year industry.
You think they're going to give that up?
Nope. They're going to spend a few million and throw up so many regulatory and availability roadblocks to prevent the loss of their ever increasing income.
What was the last billion dollar industry that let itself go obsolete?
That just doesn't happen anymore. Not when you can buy the law.
That seems high, but it's lower than average.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Sweet!
"Whenever the cause of the people is entrusted to professors, it is lost." ~ V.I. Lenin
Lawyers have to eat too!
"Whenever the cause of the people is entrusted to professors, it is lost." ~ V.I. Lenin
Anyone who blames the cost of health care on outlandishly priced medicine should have their eyelids removed and that article stapled to their face so they can read it several times a day. For perspective, I did the work for everyone.
AZN - $6.3B on revenues of $30B, 21% profit
GSK - $8.3 B on $42.5, 20% profit
SNY - 6.5B on $47B
RHHBY - $10.6B on $51.8B
PFE - $14.6B on $59B for 25% those bastards
JNJ - 10.9B on 67B
LLY - 4B on 22.6B
ABT - $6B on $40B
MRK - 6.1B on 47.2B
BMY - 2B on 18B - 11%, what is this, charity?
NVS - 9.6B on 58B
AMGN - 4B on 17B
Source: Yahoo finance numbers, the first result that didn't require scripts or images, for 2012 year ending December.
If you want to argue whether $500B in drugs is needed for a year for 7.1 billion people, most of whom either aren't sick or can't see a doctor, that's a different argument.
Every one of you mouthbreathing neckbeards who made a comment about gold plating, bribes, or other ridiculous nonsense need to either learn something about the world, or figure out why you are so resentful of a 20% profit margin.
Ever watch shark tank? They would shit on themselves rather than move over less than 200% profit margin, and then they look for bringing down cost after that. 20% is low for general consumer goods, and of course we aren't talking about consumer goods here but a comparison hopefully helps. The R&D costs are not so far off from the profits - meaning they could double their profits immediately in return for not having anything new to market in 5 years, and considering patents they would be busto in another 10 years. Barely skating by in business terms.
I don't think it quite hits the rank of the top 10 here: http://science.discovery.com/famous-scientists-discoveries/big-100-medicine.htm though it is very admirable.
There is a significant body of literature attempting to associate the onset of type 1 diabetes with infection by members of the species B enteroviruses, specifically CVB's (Coxsackieviruses B1 to B6) , if you search pubmed you will find hundreds of manuscripts. The problem has been nailing down a definitive causal relationship, from my understanding it is thought that there may be an element of molecular mimicry involved in the disease (or something similar). Essentially the virus infects the host and damages specific parts of the pancreas, the host's immune system mounts a response to the insult, but in the process creates antibodies that target the hosts own islet cells, resulting in the autoimmune disease that is type 1 diabetes. The problem of definitively implicating CVB's for type 1 diabetes is similar in some ways to that of other enterovirus infections like Polio. Basically there are other host mediated issues at play but with Polio you are able to detect the virus around the time of infection, with diabetes the disease presents after the infection has been cleared, complicating matters. To this day we still don't understand why only about 1% of people infected with Polio will develop paralysis, whilst the majority of people ~95% will show no significant signs of illness. Host factors are really important and not fully understood, there may even be a role for certain bacteria in the gut assisting the infection!
As a side note there has been some recent rumblings about the possibility of viral infections triggering transient type 2 diabetes, I can't link to any papers at the moment (too busy at work) but if anyone is interested I can have a dig around later.
Hopefully the vaccine is able to account for the amount of drift in the enterovirus genome that occurs at up to ~1% per annum, a similar problem exists with the new enterovirus 71 vaccine, an emerging bug similar in presentation to Polio.
I was under the impression that most type 1 diabetes was cause by genetics. The brief article doesn't mention this at all. Does it then take both - genetic predisposition plus a virus? Or are these two entirely separate causes?
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
It's about time; I thought they'd never finnish.
Table-ized A.I.
P2RX7 was all the hype back in January. Here's a blog entry on it... Or the paper abstract for the more technically inclined (pay-wall for paper)...
If people are interested, I think there is some more info in English concerning the earlier Tampere research here (for free)...
Sometimes it's hard to predict what is going to work in bio-science just by seeing the techno-press response. Although polio is caused by an Enterovirus, so is the common cold (the variety caused by a Rhinovirus). Generally you get Enterovirus infections orally. Some Enteroviruses can eventually enter the bloodstream and infect other organs.
Apparently, the Tampere study looked at the small-bowel mucosal biopsies of 120 patients and did a PCR technique to assess if there was likely a Enterovirus infection. 74% of people with type 1 diabetes tested positive, compared with 29% of the non-diabetic ones. On that basis they conclude that a persistent Enterovirus infection in the small-bowel might eventually spread to the pancreas where the on-going immune response might destroy the insulin producing cells leading to diabetes...
So, I wasn't totally impressed after reading that paper, but you never know...
Given that some viruses infect bacteria and alter their genetic profiles, sure, some of that is possible.
Write failed: Broken pipe
20% for consumer goods?
I think Walmart sells those ... OK, according to Yahoo finance:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT
Walmart have a profit margin of 3.61%
Not 20%.
Hmm, I wonder if this explains the false positive results I got when trying to find genetic markers for T1D risk (chapter 5 of my thesis).
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Well, then document it very well and then bloody kickstarter it. 700 million is much more than other projects, but then, this fight against diabetes is more important than your average next gadget ;)
In one line you managed to span the spectrum from ill-informed to irrelevant. Good job.
1) Cures are not "supposed" to reduce (monetary) costs, and in many cases they don't. [ill-informed]
2) The number of people with Type I Diabetes is in excess of 10 million. A billion dollar clinical trial, amortized over this population, pales in comparison to the costs (monetary or human suffering) of management. [ill-informed]
3) None of this has anything to do with socialized medicine. [irrelevant]
You're confusing Type 1 diabetes with Type 2 diabetes.
Of course, which is why we still have polio, small pox, measles, mumps, and rubella crippling or killing millions of people a year.
Oh, wait...
Best media reporting
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7926026.stm
Most notable analysis (scroll to bottom, in square brackets)
http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20090308.0959
The ProMed moderator links to related background research, points out that there are 5 specie of Enterovirus distinct enough that one vaccine could not fit all, it is 'premature' to announce it this way until the particular agent and mechanism is identified.
So by all means forge ahead, but be prudently wary of anyone who implies this is in the final stage where a vaccine is just around the corner.
---
If we were to fund LFTR research with the same dedication and fervor that we funded the polio vaccine, America could be energy-independent within 30 years, forever. Off-topic, pretend it's my sig.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
The research into Coxsackie B flu virus and its link to Type 1 diabetes is at least 40 years old. (I heard about it when I was diagnosed as a "juvenile onset diabetic", now called Type 1, over 40 years ago.) None of the vaccine attempts since then have actually worked, so it continues to be fairly pointless research.
However, there *is* a vaccine based treatment of considerable interest. Dr. Faustman's lab at Mss. General Hospital found that using the BCG tuberculosis vaccine to alter the T-cell response of lab animals, intended to reduce the auto-immune problem at the core of most Type 1 diabetes and improve transplants, *cured the lab animals*. Adult stem cells transformed to insulin producing cells (beta cells). They're on their second round of human testing: I got a note recently from them to come in and get a blood test to become an experimental subject. So it seems to be going very well (http://www.faustmanlab.org/).
And the vaccine is BCG!!! It's used worldwide for tuberculosis, it's made in lots of millions worldwide, and the reason it's not simply cured Type 1's who are visiting India and get the vaccine is that it needs to be administered differently: the lab animals needed 30 days of small doses, with very tight blood sugar control. That's also why other labs had such trouble duplicating the results at first: their test animal diabetic care wasn't as rigorous. (Glucose test strips are about $1/each: this gets expensive really, really fast with a dozen lab animals, all on insulin.) Dr. Faustman's lab found this because they were *meticulous* in their animal care: a less rigorous lab would have never seen the cure.
If the tests work out, there is *no way* the pharmaceutical companies in the US can restrict its release indefinitely. People will start going to any second world or third world nation for "the cure", using locally manufactured vaccine and a 30-day treatment. A trip to India still be one heck of a lot cheaper than the diabetes supplies for my next year, and I could disguise it as an on-site visit with the outsourced engineers there!
Like most viruses, a vaccine will do you no good once you already have the disease. So, the hundreds of millions of people throughout the world who have T1D already will not go away as a market, and there will still be billions of dollars to be made treating them.
You have nothing to worry about.
You're thinking of Type 2 diabetes, which is acquired voluntarily through poor dietary and health choices.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, or at least now maybe it's a viral disease, but in any case, it's not acquired by behavioral choice, and it can happen to just about anyone.
I know lots of skinny people who have it.
Drug and medical supply companies make far too much money from diabetes. There is no way in hell they're ever going to allow researchers to cure it.
> "Taking the vaccine through a clinical trial would cost some 700 million euros"
This is why I am always saying the FDA and similar organizations kill more than they save, by several orders of magnitude. All it takes is delaying introduction of one big cure by a few years and you've cost more lives than are lost because bad drugs get introduced too soon.
There were no mass epidemics from snake oil. Just watch "new" drugs carefully and stop as necessary.
It's a political issue, though, and a few hundred ill people before the camera is fodder for politicians to seize power with. Meanwhile nobody points out continued deaths for ancient diseases are far and away the bigger mass murderer than pharmacological companies-qua-snake oil salesmen.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The rate of type 1 is 0.4% so to get 100 cases they would need to study 25,000 people double that for a control group. The disease is most often discovered in children so they would need to be followed for say 15 years. So 700,000,000 / 50,000 / 15 = 933 euros per person per year for the study. That still sounds like a lot. Each participant would need a checkup once a year to see if they have developed the disease or got anything else that might show up in abnormal levels after the vaccine. Considering the socialized medicine in Europe the cost of checkups is already covered most of the study cost would be collecting and evaluating data.
You're probably very right, but for those of us who know little about medicine, can someone explain where that BILLION dollars would go? I know there will need to be trials run, data studied, scientists paid etc but a billion dollars is an awful lot of money ....
Correct.
You might want to read up on diabetes a little more, cause you aren't saying what you think you are saying.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It's type 2 (Resistance to insulin) that is frequently caused by bad eating habits, not type 1...
Find some death row or life without parole inmates and let them be guinea pigs to test the vaccine. I'm sure you'd have volunteers.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
especially when your life and health is at stake. And don't necessarily listen to those that simply subscribe to "traditional wisdom" because it could very well be wrong.
Read "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes (or the work it is based on, Good Calories Bad Calories)
Watch this video by Dr Peter Attia: The limits of scientific evidence and the ethics of dietary guidelines -- 60 years of ambiguity
Read the Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson
I cut out grains, sugar, and most carbs from my diet a year ago and couldn't be happier or healthier now. Don't do it just as a way to lose weight, learn WHY it is healthier and part of our genetic makeup.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
20% profit is "barely skating by"? That's just fucked up.
The Faustman Lab at Mass General has already been going down this road for years, and are ready for a phase II trial now -- but they only need to raise $16 million more. Just sayin', if anyone is thinking about donating, the Faustman Lab seems further along.
Proverbs 21:19
I thought Fructose was the prime candidate for over production of Fatty Acids and Triglycerides that literally "jam up" the mechanism that normally brings high blood sugar down. And that Insulin "resistance" was simply a conservation of mass problem.. literally.. all available Fat cell space is used up.. until the body can make more.. like a Housing Shortage
The human (or any other mammal) body dosn't work that way. Some cells need insulin before they can take up glucose. But more or less all cells can take up fructose and galactose without needing it to be present. What typically happens in practice is virtually all dietary fructose and galactose is changed into fats by the liver. It's impossible to fat cells to become "full up" since they can always undergo mitosis.
So the Blood Sugar and Fat Triglycerides just sit in the blood stream congealing and eroding the outside of the cells in the arteries and veins and organs exposed to the soup.
Sugars disolve in blood plasma, thus must be cosely regulated to maintain the required physical and chemical properties. Lipids are carried in cell like structures called lipoproteins. The number of lipoproteins in the blood, especially chylomicrons and VLDL can vary greatly.
Usually cells would taking glucose from the blood once the concentration in the cytoplasm exceeds a certain level. (Regardless of how much insulin is present in the blood.) Insulin resistance is the case insulin receptors remaining "off" even after cytoplasm glucose levels fall e.g. due to glycolysis. High levels on insulin and/or glucose tend to inhibit formation of lipoprotein receptors so an insulin resistant cell can't easily switch its ATP production from glycolysis and TCA cycle to beta oxidation or ketosis. Since liver and fat cells have the additional metabolic pathway of converting glucose to fat they don't tend to become insulin resistant.
Another way for humans to abdicate responsibility for their health!
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
You might also mention that Fructose (while it taste Sweet) is the Stealth molecule.. they body "can't detect".. you can eat a ton of Fructose.. or sugars like Table Sugar, Date Sugar, Maltitol, Sorbitol or 90% Fructose Agave Syrup.. and not raise your Insulin levels one Iota.. the Body it quite literally "Blind" to Fructose.
Manitol and sorbitol are "sugar alcohols" a different type of ogranic compound. "Table Sugar" is sucrose, a disaccharide of fructose and glucose. Fruits tend to contain a mixture of glucose, fructose and sucrose. As plant based foods the will also contain galactan, a galcatose polysaccharide. Some, such as bananas, also contain high levels of the glucose polysaccharides amylose and amylopectin.
The body can't burn Fructose, it has to turn it Into human Fat, then store that Fat, then Break that same Fat down into Glucose before it can burn it to fuel..
Human cells are prefectly able to "burn" frutose (or galactose for that matter). These get turned into fat by the liver since fats are of considerably more use than sugars to mammals. Any glucose which cannot be used in fairly short order is also converted to fats (assuming insulin is available.) The only cells which can't "burn" fats are those without mitochondria there's thus no need for anything other than a fairly low level of GNG even with a zero glucose diet.
you've already filled your Fat cells with the Jellied Fructose Fat.
Fats produced by the liver enter the blood inside VLDL, which are likely to remain in the bloodstream considerably longer than any dietary glucose.
Quite literally makes any Glucose that would have been harmless before.. Toxic and in Life threatening instantly.. congratulations.. you have Type 2 diabetes.
An excess of glucose in the blood is dangerous in itself. This would also be the case with fructose and galactose. But the regulatory mechanism is different here. T2 diabetes occurs when it cannot be removed quickly enough from the blood to keep it below toxic levels (7.6 mmol/l). Doing this is going to be easier with every cell taking up glucose than if only the liver and fat cells are doing so...
If this is the sole and leading cause of diabetes, why is it that type I nearly always occurs in childhood or, rarely, in adults? If it's solely virus mediated we would see a more even distribution of type I diabetes.
I'm not ruling it out, but other things have to be at play here.
The weasel word "almost" is in there, but even so that is, unfortunately, nowhere near correct. There is an attempt at eradicating the virus, but it's being stalled in at least three places (up from two a few months ago) : NW Pakistan (where the local leaders are forbidding the vaccination efforts and trying to kill the vaccinators ; this has been going on for a couple of years) ; Northern Nigeria (where Boko Haram are doing much the same, and for a similar period) ; and most recently there have been dozens of cases reported in refugee camps in and around Syria.
On the upside, India haven't reported any cases for some time.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Hasn't this been known since the 70s? Here's 1973. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1587352/
http://hanselman.com