Diabetes breakthrough has patients off insulin injections

Amanda Sperles and her mom Alvina are hopeful U of A research will soon free all diabetics from their daily insulin routine.

Ten-year-old Amanda Sperle was bracing herself for her daily needle when she heard a radio broadcast about U of A researchers freeing diabetics from insulin injections.

Her mother Alvina, who was giving the needle, commented on how great that would be for Amanda, an insulin-dependent diabetic for more than three years.

"Amanda said, 'It's probably years away,' and she's probably right, but it still offers hope," said Sperle of the medical discovery. "This news is wonderful."

The Sperles' reaction to the news is indicative of what other families around the world were thinking.

E-mails and phone calls have been pouring into the U of A since researcher Dr. James Shapiro recently announced his team's breakthrough at a conference in Chicago. Led by Dr. Ray Rajotte, the team includes Shapiro, a transplant surgeon, Dr. Jonathan Lakey and Dr. Greg Korbutt. Shapiro successfully transplanted donor pancreatic cells-cells needed to produce insulin-into eight people from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Yellowknife. All of them needed up to 15 self-injected insulin shots a day before the study.

The transplants took place more than a year ago and since then, none of them have needed insulin injections and they no longer need to monitor their diet. A new immune-suppressant drug called Rapamune, which became available in the United States last year, is a crucial part of the treatment. It can be given in low doses and does not appear to have some of the side effects of most immune suppressants. The findings will soon be published in the New England Journal of Medicine (the researchers are unavailable for comment until then).

After Shapiro told the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the American Transplantation Society about the discovery, the story broke in the British press and from there, the news travelled around the world.

Bill Book, board chair for the Alberta Foundation for Diabetes Research, is not surprised with the response.

"We've been working for the last 12 years to reach this day," said Book, whose foundation donated $1.8 million for the clinical trial. "The islet transplant team is probably even more ecstatic."

The research team was also supported by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

Although finding donor organs for other severe diabetics will be difficult, the impact on the eight people involved is momentous, said Book. "Insulin injections, diet and blood testing is not a great lifestyle," he said. "These eight patients who are now producing insulin on their own can get back to a normal life most of us live everyday."

That normal life is what Sperle hopes her daughter Amanda will have someday.

"It's as difficult or more difficult than the day she was diagnosed," said Alvina. The family knows what the future may hold too. Amanda's diabetic father faced complications such as kidney disease and loss of eyesight.

"As she hits her pre-teen resistance years, she's starting to question, 'Why me?' It scares me.

"This news, even if [a cure is] a few years away, is just wonderful. It's the only hope we have."