Have Scientists Found a Type 1 Diabetes Cure? Breakthrough Treatment Is Giving Millions Hope
Find out how to apply for the ongoing studies—and how anyone can help speed FDA approval
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1D), a genuine miracle is on the horizon: a type 1 diabetes cure. Newly released findings show that all 10 initial participants enrolled in a University of Chicago treatment trial—who’d had the disease, on average, for 33 years—had nondiabetic bloodwork and were completely off insulin in four weeks.
“Do you know how fast that is?” asks Devin Holt, CRNA, founder of Crushing T1, an online platform that raises awareness for cure-focused research. “One of the most amazing parts about this trial, besides the fact that they’re curing people of type 1 diabetes, is how quickly they’re curing them.”
Keep reading to find out what the treatment entails, how to get into future studies and what ordinary folks can do to speed the race to a long-term cure.
Woman's World Answers
How the type 1 diabetes cure works
The nutshell version: Patients are infused with immunosuppressive drugs and matched to a deceased organ donor (a process that can take months). Next, they get an anti-rejection medication called tegoprubart, according to lead researcher Piotr Witkowski, MD, PhD, Director of the Pancreas and Islet Transplant Program at UChicago. Patients then receive a transplant of donor islet cells, which are special insulin-producing beta cells found in a healthy pancreas.
“I had my transplant on January 13,” former type 1 diabetic Katie Beth Hand, 39, reveals on TikTok, where she’s documenting her journey as the ninth patient in the trial. “They took me to a procedure room, gave me a medication in my IV to make me feel very chill, and then numbed up the side of my abdomen. I was awake the entire time.” A surgeon inserted a tube into her liver to deliver the islet cells. “It took about an hour.” It was such an easy process, “I was wishing they’d let me bring my Kindle!”
Why the new treatment is ‘running laps’ around the competition
Islet cell transplants aren’t new. The difference maker is tegoprubart, which is made by Eledon Pharmaceuticals. When scientists explain tegoprubart, it goes over our heads. But Hand, an Arkansas mom of four, has a knack for helping folks understand. Tegoprubart, she says, “protects islet cells without suppressing your immune system as a whole. And it also doesn’t have any yucky side effects that traditional immunosuppressants have.”
That means no tremors, headaches, confusion, high blood pressure, hair loss, toxicity to islet cells t or kidney damage. In fact, Eledon reports that their drug has shown zero toxicity. The next phase of testing will be on type 1 diabetics with kidney dysfunction—a huge step forward, given that other anti-rejection drugs are very hard on the kidneys.
Will this benefit people with type 2 diabetes? This treatment addresses an autoimmune-triggered form of the disease, “so it wouldn’t work for someone that has type 2 diabetes,” says Hand.
Hand will continue to travel to Chicago for infusions of tegoprubart every 21 days, and will likely have to take the drug lifelong. But it’s worth it. “I have no side effects,” she posts. “I feel really good. I have lots of energy.” She says she wouldn’t even know she was on the drug except that her blood sugar has improved so drastically. “Because of that, I actually feel better than ever!”
Her A1C levels, a key marker of diabetes, dropped from 7.5 before her transplant (in the diabetic range) to 5.7 after four weeks and 5.3 today. She’s well into the normal, nondiabetic range. Researchers call this a “functional cure.”
According to Holt: “Eledon is literally running laps around everybody on the race to cure type one diabetes!”
How you can help make this type 1 diabetes cure available sooner
While testing is still in early stages with more trials and red tape ahead, Eledon CEO David-Alexandre C. Gros, MD, says the company plans to meet with the FDA later this year about a path to getting tegoprubart on the market.
And we don’t have to sit idly by. Hand is passionate about one way people can help speed the process: supporting the Islet Act. This legislation would reclassify donated islet cells as an organ rather than a drug, a subtle difference allowing for significantly more research. “Instead of taking 10 or 12 patients, they’d be able to do 50 or more,” Hand shared. “It would give a lot more data and make things move much more quickly.”
Reclassification of islet cells would also make insurance more likely to cover the cost of this potential cure for type 1 diabetes. Hand encourages everyone to email their senators, especially those on the senate health committee, and ask them to vote for the Islet Act. “We have a functional cure for diabetes,” she says. “Let’s make it [available and] affordable for everybody.”
How can people get into future trials?
As word of the Eledon trial spreads, researchers are working through a flood of applications. But they’re still accepting new ones—and yours could be next. The trial is currently open for adults ages 18 to 65 with type 1 diabetes. Find more information on the website of lead researcher Dr. Witkowski. If you think you qualify, click the “Enroll Here” button to start the process.
A final word of hope for the T1D community
For those who have spent years counting carbs, pricking fingers and losing sleep over midnight lows, the success of the Eledon trial brings the dream of a cure closer than ever to becoming a reality. Whether you’re a patient, a caregiver or just a supporter, your voice in advocating for the Islet Act can help bridge the gap between “one day” and “today.”
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