NBC reports potential Type 1 diabetes cure in 12-person trial
A reported 12-person islet-cell trial offers hope, but insulin independence is not yet a broad, risk-free cure for Type 1 diabetes.
By Deshawn Carter · Sports Writer
3 min read
A Type 1 diabetes cure is not here for most patients, despite an attention-grabbing NBC News report that a University of Chicago clinical trial may have potentially cured all 12 participants. NBC said the approach combined transplanted pancreatic islet cells with a drug designed to prevent rejection.
That is promising, but the available NBC report does not identify the treatment, trial design, length of follow-up or detailed results. It cannot establish that Type 1 diabetes has been broadly or permanently cured.
Can Type 1 diabetes be cured with cell transplants?
Cell transplants can restore insulin production in some people with Type 1 diabetes. But a period without insulin injections is different from proving the underlying autoimmune disease has been eliminated, or that a treatment will work safely for everyone over the long term.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system destroys pancreatic islet cells that make insulin. A potential functional cure therefore has two jobs: replace the insulin-producing cells and keep the body from attacking or rejecting them.
There is already an FDA-approved islet-cell therapy, Lantidra, made from deceased-donor pancreatic cells. The FDA approved it in 2023 for adults with Type 1 diabetes who continue to have repeated severe low-blood-sugar episodes despite intensive diabetes management and education.
In two non-randomized studies involving 30 people with Type 1 diabetes and hypoglycemia unawareness, 21 went at least a year without insulin after Lantidra, according to the FDA. Eleven remained insulin-independent for one to five years, while 10 did so for more than five years. Five participants never achieved insulin independence.
The treatment is infused into the liver’s portal vein and must be used with immune-suppressing medicines. The FDA said most study participants had at least one serious adverse reaction linked to either the infusion procedure or the drugs used to preserve the transplanted cells. In some cases, stopping those medicines because of adverse effects meant losing islet-cell function and insulin independence.
Why the latest research still falls short of a universal cure
Researchers are also testing lab-grown, stem-cell-derived insulin-producing cells. DiaTribe reported that, in a 12-person group receiving Vertex’s investigational cell therapy zimislecel, 10 no longer needed daily insulin after one year; the other two produced insulin but still needed some. The treatment currently requires immunosuppression, according to DiaTribe.
Other encouraging results remain preclinical. Medical University of South Carolina researchers reported that an engineered stem-cell therapy reversed new-onset Type 1 diabetes in mice, while Stanford Medicine reported transplant approaches that prevented or cured autoimmune diabetes in mouse studies. Neither result demonstrates a treatment has cured people.
For now, the strongest human results show that insulin production can be restored in selected patients, often with serious trade-offs. People considering a transplant or trial should discuss their circumstances with a diabetes specialist rather than treating a headline about a potential cure as established care.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.