Posted by Sandy Donchess on February 26, 1999 at 10:13:16:
Death rate from diabetes up in U.S.
But spending on research into the disease has fallen
By Maggie Fox
Reuters
Feb. 25 — The death rate from diabetes has risen by 30 percent since 1980, while spending on diabetes research has fallen, researchers said Thursday. A report by the Diabetes Research Working Group, set up by Congress and including scientists, doctors, lobbyists and patients, said there are several areas of research that offer great promise if the right funding gets there.
‘In both human and economic terms, diabetes has become a national public health crisis.’
George Nethercutt
Congressional diabetes caucus
AMONG THE promising avenues for research are tissue transplants that might offer a cure, gene therapy, and greater understanding of obesity, one of the biggest causes of type-II diabetes.
An estimated 135 million people worldwide, and 16 million Americans, have diabetes. Most have the type-II or non-insulin dependent form, in which the body does not respond properly to insulin and cannot manage blood fat and sugar levels.
The report said 200,000 Americans die every year from diabetes and that the disease costs $100 billion in medical care and other expenses every year. It can cause blindness, limb loss and other problems.
In both human and economic terms, diabetes has become a national public health crisis,” George Nethercutt, a Washington Republican member of Congress who heads the Congressional diabetes caucus, told a news conference.
Over the last two decades, funding for diabetes has not kept up with the scientific opportunities or public needs.”
$385 MILLION INCREASE SOUGHT
They asked for $827 million out of next year’s budget, an increase of $385 million, to be spent on National Institutes of Health (NIH) research.
Type-I or juvenile” diabetes is an autoimmune disease, caused when the body mistakenly destroys the beta cells that produce insulin. People with type-I diabetes must take insulin daily to survive.
Researchers are trying to figure out ways to transplant new cells into patients whose insulin-producing cells were destroyed. The body’s immune system often attacks these transplants, although Dr. Christopher Newgard, a member of the group and professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said recent research suggests there may be ways to prevent this attack.
Newgard said scientists need to better understand why the beta or islet cells are targeted. We seek to be able to block the immune attack,” he said in an interview.
As for tissue transplants, there is the question of supply. Perhaps animal cells can be genetically engineered, but again fundamental research is needed, the report said.
STEM CELLS PROMISING
Another possible source is stem cells — a kind of nursery cell that can develop into any kind of cell in the body.
Scientists hope to find ways to take stem cells from patients and grow them into tissue for transplant back into the body — tissue that would not be rejected by the immune system because it is the body’s own.
Another source of stem cells comes from human embryos, often aborted or left over from fertility treatments. But this is a more controversial area of research because of concerns from pro-life groups.
Newgard said stem cell research will benefit all areas of medicine, but said it does not offer a quick or easy cure, either. Getting there from a stem cell is going to be a very challenging task,” he said.
It seems you have to go through several stages of development to end at a beta cell. Learning how to induce some poor unsuspecting stem cell to do that is going to be a difficult task.”
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