On May 8, the Beijing News published the latest research results of a mainland research team, which attracted attention.
The team performed the world's first autologous regenerative islet transplant, which means that diabetes will no longer be incurable.
The world's 350 million diabetic patients have regained hope of cure, and at the same time, this breakthrough will also attract a market of 53 trillion yuan to the mainland.
It's just that a certain American company next door that is still making a lot of money in the market with diet pills may not be able to laugh at all......
The source of this article comes from the official media (CCTV "The world's first diabetic patient gets rid of exogenous insulin through porcine islet transplantation", Sina Finance "Patients with a history of 25 years of diabetes are cured to attract attention, experts: the results are preliminary, and the research needs to be continuously promoted", China News Network "The world's first case of autologous regenerative islet transplantation was successful, and patients with a history of diabetes for 25 years were cured"), but in order to improve the readability of the article, the details may be polished, please read sensibly, for reference only!
The new results have caused a sensation
According to reports, the world's first autologous regenerative islet transplantation was completed by a research team from Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, led by Professor Yin Hao. As early as the end of April this year, Yin Hao and the Cheng Xin team of the Center for Excellence in Molecular and Cell Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences published the research results in the international academic journal "Cell Discovery".
Autologous regeneration islets are endodermal stem cells produced by using stem cells in the diabetic human body, also known as in vitro reconstituted islet tissue. Although the procedure is simple, the process is quite complex, as the researchers must first remove the excess material from the patient's stem cells. After the isolation surgery is completed, the autologous regenerated islets can survive effectively, thus helping diabetic patients to achieve healing.
The recipient of the world's first autologous regenerative islet transplant was a male patient with a 25-year history of type 2 diabetes. In June 2017, the patient underwent a kidney transplant after transitioning from uremia to end-stage diabetic nephropathy. Despite the success of the surgery, the patient still had a risk of recurrence of diabetes and had to rely on insulin for a long time to control the condition.
The cost of diabetes treatment is already high, and the repeated surgeries have increased the financial burden on the patient's family, and the body and mind are extremely tormented. Fortunately, in July 2021, the male patient underwent autologous islet transplantation at Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, and his condition began to improve.
At the 11th week after surgery, the male patient completely got rid of the dependence on exogenous insulin, and gradually reduced the dosage of oral hypoglycemic drugs such as baisampin and metformin. At 56 weeks after surgery, the patient stopped taking medication and is now fully 33 months after he was completely weaned off insulin. Now the patient has returned to his normal life, is able to work competently, and no longer has to suffer from the pain.
The results achieved by Yin Hao's team have caused a sensation around the world, and the majority of diabetic patients have rekindled their hope. However, autologous regenerative islet transplantation is mainly for common diabetes, and this treatment may not still be suitable for severe patients or patients with fragile diabetes.
In addition, when performing autologous regenerative islet transplantation, the age and gender of diabetic patients also need to be taken into account. In this case, a 59-year-old male patient is being treated, and if the patient is young, it is likely that the fragility of his body will hinder the treatment. As a result, patients still need to spend a lot of money to see a doctor, and the result is equivalent to useless work.
Therefore, at this stage, the autologous regenerative islet transplantation proposed by Yin Hao's team still has certain limitations. The types of diabetes are complex and varied, and although it has made a "good start" in male patients, it is necessary to continuously optimize the technical means to promote it to the mainstream of diabetes treatment in the world. To this end, Yin Hao's team will continue to carry out research and strive to make new breakthroughs as soon as possible.
There is still a long way to go, and efforts are still needed
The harm of diabetes is extremely great, once people are infected with this disease, they will have kidney failure, blindness and other complications due to poor blood sugar control, and even death due to ketoacidosis or unconscious hypoglycemia in severe cases. In recent years, the global prevalence of diabetes has been increasing, reaching 530 million in 2021. On the mainland, there are 140 million people with diabetes.
China is the largest country in diabetes, and about 40 million of the 140 million diabetic patients must be accompanied by insulin for life. For some critically ill patients who are unable to control blood glucose, minimally invasive surgery to extract islet tissue from donated pancreas is still the main clinical practice. The research results of Yin Hao's team are the optimization solutions proposed to solve the shortcomings of this treatment method.
According to IDF Pinglu, it is estimated that by 2045, the number of adults with diabetes worldwide will rise to 783 million. At the same time, the organization also predicts that the scale of global medical spending for adults with diabetes will also swell, exceeding $1,000 billion by 2030. The treatment of diabetics is inseparable from drug treatment, and based on this premise, some medical companies will take the opportunity to make a lot of money.
The most typical is Eli Lilly and Company of the United States, although this company focuses on health care, but it won $1.817 billion in revenue in the first quarter of this year by selling weight loss drugs. The weight loss drugs researched by the company can not only help patients get rid of obesity, but also effectively inhibit the worsening of diabetes, which is simply a "good medicine" for diabetics who must rely on drugs to regulate blood sugar.
On the other hand, medical companies will also take advantage of patients' demand for drugs to open up markets in order to obtain greater commercial profits. However, with the successful completion of the world's first autologous reconstruction islet transplant by Yin Hao's team, the dependence of diabetic patients on drugs will gradually decrease, making it impossible for medical companies to profit from the 53 trillion market value of diabetes.
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Resources
[1] CCTV, "The world's first diabetic patient to get rid of exogenous insulin through porcine islet transplantation"; https://news.cctv.com/2023/01/12/ARTI4XGQUJoQ3HQJEbimEdK3230112.shtml
[2] Sina Finance, "Patients with a 25-year history of diabetes have been cured, and experts: the results are preliminary, and the research needs to be continuously promoted"; https://finance.sina.com.cn/jjxw/2024-05-08/doc-inaupqtf7109442.shtml
[3] China News Network, "The World's First Autologous Regenerated Islet Transplantation Was Successful, and Patients with a History of 25 Years of Diabetes Were Cured" https://www.chinanews.com/life/2024/05-07/10212415.shtml