fbpx
 
Home / News, Videos & Publications / News / Medical Research /

BGU Researcher Talks Possible Diabetes Cure

BGU Researcher Talks Possible Diabetes Cure

April 24, 2014

Medical Research

Washington Jewish Week — Every day, more than 40 children are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The only approach to treat the disease has been the use of insulin, which was discovered almost 100 years ago. Finding an actual cure has been out of reach.

Diabetes expert Dr. Eli Lewis, director of BGU’s Clinical Islet Laboratory, says this may soon change, and believes he and his fellow researchers have found a cure for type 1 diabetes, which is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and was previously known as juvenile diabetes.

Eli Lewis - 2014

Dr. Eli Lewis

Recent findings from two rounds of clinical trials showed that several patients injected with the anti-inflammatory molecule alpha 1 (antitrypsin) in the form of the FDA-approved drug AAT, were able to reduce their insulin or become insulin-free altogether.

“I’d call it the closest we have to a cure,” says Dr. Lewis, who has been collaborating with researchers at the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes at the University of Colorado for 10 years.

The first round of clinical trials took place more than two years ago at the University of Colorado, the Joslin Diabetes Center and at two children’s hospitals in Israel.

“Together we’ve been developing this approach which is not focusing on the immune system,” says Dr. Lewis, “but focusing on actual cells that make insulin.”

Dr. Lewis was recently in the Washington-Baltimore area to talk about his findings with researchers and endocrinology departments at Children’s National Medical Center in the District and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He also talked about his findings in the more intimate settings of people’s homes, with smaller groups of those familiar with Ben-Gurion University’s work and families affected by type 1.

“What I do now in these visits is present all the results that we have, and hopefully connect to help some of the few families that found this as an option to do outside trials at off-label use,” explains Dr. Lewis. “We’re meeting people that have been following BGU and showing them all these advances so they can get a new, updated snapshot of what we’re doing.”

In 2008, a Jewish boy from San Diego was the first patient to participate in Lewis’ clinical study. His diabetes is now under control and he doesn’t take insulin anymore, says Dr. Lewis.

Both the younger and older patients who participated in the first clinical trial were found to have stopped or reduced their insulin use with no negative side effects since they finished the trial over two years ago, according to Lewis. The study was published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Dr. Lewis says those who participated in the trials were diagnosed with Type 1 less than a year before starting the treatment.

He is hopeful that the FDA will approve AAT for on-label use as a Type 1 cure because of its proven safety and the positive reactions he’s been getting from fellow researchers.

Read more on The Washington Jewish Week  website >>