News Page Links Page  

To read more news stories click the links below and a new browser page will open.                   

Minnesota researchers on the cusp of a cure....Minneapolis, Minn. — The cure for diabetes could come from cells from pigs being raised in germ-free pens in Western Wisconsin or from human skin cells in a lab on the University of Minnesota campus.

Type 1 diabetes discovery by Cardiff University and King's College ....Scientists say they have uncovered new evidence which it is hoped could eventually help diagnose and prevent type 1 diabetes. Professor Andy Sewell of Cardiff University, working with King's College London, witnessed human T-cells - which protect against disease - inadvertently destroying insulin-producing cells.

Islet Homeostasis Protein May Be New Target For Type 1 Diabetes Treatment....A protein that might play a vital role in how the human body controls blood glucose levels has been identified by investigators at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine. According to the study published in the current issue of Pancreas, the protein named Islet Homeostasis Protein (IHoP) may represent a new target for treating people with type 1 diabetes. Bryon E. Petersen, Ph.D., professor of regenerative medicine and senior author, explained: "This data may change the current thinking about what causes type 1 diabetes. Much more research is needed to understand exactly how the protein functions, but its discovery opens a new door to better understand and hopefully develop new treatments for this currently incurable disease."

Older News Stories

Medtronic remote diabetes monitor gets US approval....Medtronic Inc on Wednesday said it received U.S. regulatory approval for the first remote glucose monitor that will let parents check the blood sugar of a diabetic child sleeping in another room. About three out of four severe hypoglycemic reactions, in which a diabetic’s blood sugar drops to a dangerously low level, occur overnight. Parents of children with diabetes typically get up several times a night to check whether the child’s blood sugar is within healthy levels.

Type 1 diabetes prevention 'better than cure'....Winnipeg doctor wants to give newborns at high risk of Type 1 diabetes a vitamin to try to prevent them from developing the disease. Dr. Shayne Taback is a pediatric endocrinologist. He and his team in other locations say it is time to rigorously test the idea that high doses of vitamin D could prevent children from getting Type 1 diabetes.

Sleep Woes Tied to Blood Sugar Levels in Diabetic Kids....Children with type 1 diabetes may be more likely to have sleep problems that worsen not only their blood sugar control, but also their quality of life, researchers found. Diabetic children with more nightly apnea events had significantly higher glucose levels and spent more time in hyperglycemia than young type 1 diabetics without sleep disturbances, Michelle Perfect, PhD, of the University of Arizona in Tucson, and colleagues reported online in Sleep.

PositiveID Corporation Partners With Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami and Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel to Support Development of PositiveID's Diabetes Management Products....PositiveID Corporation, a developer of medical technologies for diabetes management and molecular diagnostic systems, announced today it has partnered with two leading diabetes research organizations, the Diabetes Research Institute ("DRI") at the University of Miami and Schneider Children's Medical Center of Israel ("Schneider Children's"), to support the continued development and study of PositiveID's diabetes management products. PositiveID is currently developing Easy Check(TM), a non-invasive breath glucose detection device, GlucoChip(TM), a continuous glucose-sensing microchip, and the iglucose(TM) glucometer, a blood glucose meter with PositiveID's FDA-cleared iglucose technology built inside the device.

Protein May Represent Treatment Target for Type 1 Diabetes....Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine and colleagues have discovered a new protein that may play a critical role in how the human body regulates blood sugar levels. Reporting in the current issue of Pancreas, the research team says the protein may represent a new target for treating type 1 diabetes. “This data may change the current thinking about what causes type 1 diabetes,” said Bryon E. Petersen, Ph.D., professor of regenerative medicine and senior author. “Much more research is needed to understand exactly how the protein functions, but its discovery opens a new door to better understand and hopefully develop new treatments for this currently incurable disease.”

Tear drop tests as effective as blood for diabetes testing, study finds....There is new hope for diabetics who dread frequent finger pricks and blood draws used to monitor their blood glucose levels. Scientists say they are developing a device that can test blood sugar levels via teardrops instead of blood.

Connexins: Providing protection to cells destroyed in Type 1 diabetes....a team of researchers led by Paola Meda, at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, has now determined that the protein connexin 36 protects mouse pancreatic beta-cells against immune molecules that are prevalent in the pancreas at the onset of type 1 diabetes. Meda and colleagues therefore suggest that promoting connexin 36 expression and/or function therapeutically might provide a way to protect beta-cells from immune system attack and thereby sustain insulin production in individuals with type 1 diabetes.

Promising Compound to Prevent Type 1 Diabetes Discovered....University of Colorado School of Medicine researchers have identified a specific molecule that can prevent the development of type 1 diabetes in mice. The findings has implications in the fight against type I diabetes along with other autoimmune disorders.

Children with type 1 diabetes in Oxfordshire are to be the first patients in England to have their blood sugar levels tested using their breath....Oxford Medical Diagnostics is working in partnership with the city's children's hospital to test its new desktop device. The machine can accurately measure tiny amounts of acetone on a patient's breath. This can then be used to estimate how much insulin is needed. Watch the BBC Video Here

Blood Sugar Extremes Can Affect Young Brains....Sometimes it feels like diabetes is driving you crazy. But what if the disease is actually changing your brain? That's the disturbing suggestion of a new study from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study suggests that both high and low blood sugars affect the brain development of young people with diabetes, but in different ways. The scientists found that the youths with many high blood sugars (more hyperglycemia) had less grey matter than those with better control. They also found that subjects who had lots of low blood sugars (hypoglycemia) had less occipital-parietal white matter.

Toronto stem-cell breakthrough may help treat diseases....Canadian scientists have managed to isolate the stem cells for human blood. The research, opens the door to more clinical applications for stem-cell therapies, as well as further research. Scientists hope the discovery will help develop better and more effective treatments for leukemia, heart disease, diabetes, respiratory disease and spinal cord injury.

Preliminary results from Generex Oral-lyn clinical trial on type 1 diabetes....Generex Oral-lyn™ was designed as a prandial (meal-time) insulin to replace the failing rapid secretion of insulin, which a healthy person's insulin secreting cells in the pancreas normally produce in response to eating a meal.

Drug May Treat Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes....The experimental drug teplizumab shows promise for delaying the progression of type 1 diabetes in people newly diagnosed with it, researchers say.

Lucentis May Treat Diabetes-Related Vision Loss....Lucentis, a drug used to treat people with vision problems from age-related macular degeneration, may help to restore vision among people with eye complications caused by diabetes, two studies suggest.

Becton device would improve glucose monitoring....(Reuters) - Becton Dickinson & Co is developing needle technology to monitor blood sugar and deliver insulin that could bring the concept of an artificial pancreas for diabetics a step closer to reality, its chief executive said.

JDRF and Amylin Partner to Investigate Co-Formulating Two Hormones for Treatment of Type 1 Diabetes....The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a research collaboration agreement to provide financial support for a series of clinical studies to investigate the feasibility of mixing pramlintide, an analog of the human hormone amylin, with insulin to treat type 1 diabetes.

Phase 1 Study Initiated for Biodel, Inc.'s Insulin Formulations....The company announced today that an independent investigator initiated a pump trial of Biodel’s two ultra-rapid-acting formulations of recombinant human insulin. Insulin pump therapy is used as a means to provide intensive insulin therapy to patients with diabetes.

Sitagliptin (Januvia) Lowers Blood Sugar in People With Type 1 Diabetes....Sitagliptin (Januvia) has long been used to reduce blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, but a new study indicates that it can do the same for those with type 1 diabetes.

Shining a Light on Diabetes....Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently advanced a major step towards minimizing pain and inconvenience for patients with type 1 diabetes. Such people must keep a careful eye on their blood glucose levels, and therefore they are required to prick their fingers several times a day to draw blood for testing. Now, using a new device, they could use a noninvasive way that relies on light to measure blood glucose levels.
 
Novo Nordisk launches customizable online resources for managing diabetes....Novo Nordisk, a world leader in diabetes care, has launched a comprehensive, highly customizable online support program for people living with diabetes called Cornerstones4Care™.
 
Insulin, brain cholesterol, cognition link....U.S. researchers suggest a new explanation for the neurologic and cerebral complications -- cognitive dysfunction, depression -- that come with diabetes.
 
Menstrual irregularities linked to type 1 diabetes....Despite multiple daily insulin doses and attempts at optimal metabolic control, adolescent girls with type 1 diabetes have a higher prevalence of oligomenorrhea (infrequent or, very light menstruation) compared with healthy adolescents.
 
Six things not to say to someone with diabetes...."Should you be eating that?" People living with diabetes are painfully familiar with the "Diabetes Police," those well-meaning friends, family members and strangers who might point out weight gain, drop hints about exercising more or relentlessly push sugar-free foods, even though both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics can eat sugar.
 
Diabetes Type 1 Death Rate Falling, But Still 7 Times Higher Than Rest of Population....Although death (mortality) rates for patients with diabetes type 1 are falling, they are still seven times higher than in the rest of the population, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh wrote in the medical journal Diabetes Care. The authors wrote that there is still concern for African-Americans and female patients. Females with Type 1 are 13 more likely to die prematurely than other females without diabetes. 24% of Caucasians die early because of diabetes type 1 long-term complications, compared to 50.6% of African-Americans.

Oxford Gene Technology Announces Major Role In Large Scale Diabetes Study....In a groundbreaking study, Professor Stephen Rich, Director of the centre, will utilise OGT's Genefficiency aCGH microarray screening service to investigate the relationship between genome structural variation and susceptibility to type 1 (T1) diabetes. Employing a unique array design developed from recent work exploring genome wide copy number variations (CNVs), the new study will utilise an extensive collection of over 10,000 patient samples in the hope of identifying CNVs associated with T1 diabetes. This will allow researchers to better predict disease susceptibility and highlight potential opportunities for therapeutic manipulation.

Experts: People with diabetes need better dental habits....While dental health is linked to a diabetics overall bill of health, some individuals who have this disease still neglect their dental hygine. In fact, a new study indicates that approximately 66 percent of diabetics have not improved their oral care habits since they were first diagnosed with this illness.

Haptoglobin as an early serum biomarker of virus-induced type 1 diabetes in rats....Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is a multifactorial disease of complex etiology characterized by the autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells. In addition to genetic susceptibility, it is generally accepted that environmental factors play important roles in triggering disease, with virus infection having perhaps the strongest association.

Insight into how immune cells cause diabetes....Australian researchers have uncovered how immune cells interact causing them to attack the body's own beta cells, resulting in Type 1 diabetes.