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View Full Version : Tuberculosis Vaccine Could Reverse Type 1 Diabetes, Study Shows



Aragorn
24th June 2018, 12:31
Source: Fortune (http://fortune.com/2018/06/21/tuberculosis-vaccine-reverse-juvenile-diabetes-study-shows/)




https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/gettyimages-850141074.jpg


The causes of Type 1 diabetes can be significantly reversed over several years with just two injections of a common tuberculosis vaccine injected a few weeks apart, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) announced Thursday in a paper published in the journal Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-018-0062-8).

Researchers found a substantial reduction in the blood-sugar marker HbA1c that is used to diagnose diabetes. All subjects with diabetes who received the vaccine had a 10% reduction after three years and 18% after four years, bringing them below the cutoff point for a clinical diagnosis. Those subjects followed for a full eight years retained most of the reduction.

Participants who received a placebo or were in a reference group that followed normal diabetic management saw their blood sugar measurement rise by a few percentage points during the same periods followed. Subjects of the study receiving the vaccine or placebo continued to use insulin during the study period.

The study’s principal director, Dr. Denise Faustman, director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory, told FierceBiotech (https://www.fiercebiotech.com/research/new-insight-into-how-old-tb-vaccine-lowers-blood-sugar-type-1-diabetes) and other news outlets, “Nobody thought you could intervene with an immunotherapy in people 10, 20 years out. To have data showing durability for 8 years, without revaccination, is remarkable.”

A 10% reduction in Hb1Ac reduces the risk of death as a result of diabetes by 21%, and drops by 37% other complications, like blindness and loss of feeling in hands and feet, according to a 2000 study (https://www.bmj.com/content/321/7258/405.short).

The study followed a relatively small number of people: 52 total with Type 1 diabetes, only 12 of whom received injections. Of the 12, nine received the vaccine and three the placebo. All 52 had follow-up measurements through five years. And three of those who received the vaccine were followed for eight years.

Medical researchers not involved in the study expressed a range of high to very mild skepticism about the validity of the study due almost entirely to its small size. “This could be something that happened by chance because people were a bit more diligent or leaner or more compliant with diet,” Dr. Adrian Vella, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic, said in an interview with NBC News (https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/can-cheap-widely-available-tb-vaccine-help-diabetics-n885416). However, Dr. Joseph Bellanti, a professor of pediatrics and microbiology-immunology at Georgetown Medical Center, said in an interview with WBUR that was “cautiously optimistic” because of the quality of the study’s design.

A failure to produce enough insulin, Type 1 diabetes affects an estimated 20 to 40 million people globally (https://drc.bmj.com/content/4/1/e000161). The more common form Type 2, resulting from obesity and lack of exercise, affects at least 400 million people. Diabetes incidence has more than quadrupled (http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/diabetes) in the last 40 years.

The study relied on the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, which has been used in humans since 1921. Its use is limited in the United States, because the form of bacteria it protects against, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is rare in this country. The CDC generally recommends against its use (https://www.cdc.gov/tb/publications/factsheets/prevention/bcg.htm) as it creates false positives from a TB test that’s routine in the U.S. However, it’s been administered to an estimated 4 billion people (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3749764/).

Based on initial mice tests, researchers expected the vaccine would prompt regeneration of the pancreas, which produces insulin. Instead, they write in their paper, a form of white blood cells starts to metabolize sugar more aggressively—10 to 20 times as much as they normally consume.

However, the long delay in a measurable effect wasn’t a surprise. A number of studies using BCG that have produced outcomes such as slowing the progress of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases show a long onset.


Source: Fortune (http://fortune.com/2018/06/21/tuberculosis-vaccine-reverse-juvenile-diabetes-study-shows/)

Emil El Zapato
24th June 2018, 13:12
that's pretty amazing...

My older brother has been a type 1 diabetic for many years...

Aianawa
1st July 2018, 06:20
Indeed amazing, feel an easier solution will show itself and be speedier. Having worked with young ones 1 and 2, is great to hear.

Amanda
6th July 2018, 23:11
Interesting. The use of the word 'could' is of course to be considered in a critical context. I am aware that people are beating diabetes via changes to their lifestyle and diet. I know of one person, locally, who lost excess weight and with that - also lost the diabetes with which he had been diagnosed.

When I first became interested in researching Sodium Fluoride, I read widely and not just via the worldwideweb. I kept seeing four main diseases mentioned and diabetes was one of those diseases. Find the cause and you can work out the cure.

A vaccine that 'could' cure diabetes is not really convincing me. The more I learn about vaccines the more sceptical I become, particularly in that proper medical studies on the human testing of vaccines - seems to be non existent.

Much Respect - Amanda

Dreamtimer
7th July 2018, 12:28
The wonder and mystery of medicines is that so much of what they do has been discovered by accident. Researchers are looking for one effect, they find another. And as we know there are off-label uses galore. (at least there are in America)

This seems to me like one of those circumstances.

A somewhat similar dynamic is the phenomenon of ulcers. Once the drugs were developed which helped to stop ulcers, it was discovered years later that the person was left vulnerable to esophageal cancer. An unknown, and unexpected side-effect. That's how it was learned that the bacteria that lead to ulcers help to prevent cancer.

Personally, I would go with as much lifestyle change as I could before drugs. But sometimes drugs are the option. Or maybe vaccines.

Elen
7th July 2018, 13:11
The wonder and mystery of medicines is that so much of what they do has been discovered by accident. Researchers are looking for one effect, they find another.

Yes yes...who would have thought that rat poison is actually an artificial sweetener? :grin:

Dreamtimer
7th July 2018, 13:21
Antifreeze is also very sweet. Keep your animals away! Fortunately, no-one is stupid enough to try to turn it into medicine. (I shouldn't give anyone any ideas:nails:)