Written by Ana Sandoiu on February 26, 2020 - Fact checked by Paula Field New
New research uses an innovative technique to convert human stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells much more effectively. The insulin-producing cells created ‘rapidly cured’ type 1 diabetes in mice, and the benefits lasted for 9 months.
Share on PinterestHuman stem cells, shown here, can turn into insulin-producing beta cells. Transplanting billions of such cells may soon cure type 1 diabetes.
As many as 187,000 children and adolescents in the United States were living with type 1 diabetes in 2018.
In type 1 diabetes, a faulty autoimmune response causes the immune system to attack and destroy insulin-producing beta cells within the pancreas.
Previous research has pointed to human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) as a potential therapeutic avenue for type 1 diabetes.
Pluripotent stem cells are an attractive option for researchers from a therapeutic standpoint because they can self-renew in lab cultures and can differentiate into a variety of cell types.
Researchers have previously used hPSCs to create insulin-producing beta cells. However, they were not able to do so effectively enough to cure type 1 diabetes.
Jeffrey R. Millman, Ph.D., an assistant professor of medicine and biomedical engineering at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is the principal investigator of the new study, which managed to overcome these previous obstacles.
He explains the challenges that halted the scientists’ progress until now. He says, “A common problem when you’re trying to transform a human stem cell into an insulin-producing beta cell — or a neuron or a heart cell — is that you also produce other cells that you don’t want.”
“In the case of beta cells, we might get other types of pancreas cells or liver cells.” While implanting these unnecessary — or “off-target” — cells does not cause any harm, Millman further explains that creating more of them offsets the number of therapeutically useful cells.
“The more off-target cells you get, the less therapeutically relevant cells you have,” he says.
“You need about a billion beta cells to cure a person of diabetes. But if a quarter of the cells you make are actually liver cells or other pancreas cells, instead of needing a billion cells, you’ll need 1.25 billion cells. It makes curing the disease 25% more difficult.”
However, the new research used an innovative technique that bypassed this problem. The findings appear in the journal Nature Biotech
The new technique targets the cytoskeleton — or inner “scaffolding” — of the hPSC to direct their differentiation into pancreatic cells.
The cytoskeleton is a structure that helps cells keep their shape and offers the mechanical support that allows cells to move, divide, and multiply.
Targeting this structure allows the researchers to create fewer irrelevant cells and better functioning beta cells that helped control blood sugar.
Millman explains the novelty of the approach, saying, “It’s a completely different approach, fundamentally different in the way we go about it.”
“Previously, we would identify various proteins and factors and sprinkle them on the cells to see what would happen. As we have better understood the signals, we’ve been able to make that process less random.”
Millman and team transplanted “islet-sized aggregates” of beta cells differentiated from hPSC into mice with type 1 diabetes.
Pancreatic islets are groups of cells located in the pancreas. Some of these cells are insulin-producing beta cells.
This transplantation procedure “rapidly reversed severe preexisting diabetes in mice,” write the authors in their paper. The new stem cell protocol “can rapidly cure preexisting diabetes in mice,” they emphasize later on.
The reversal occurred at a rate similar to that of human islets, and normal blood sugar control was maintained for at least 9 months.
“We were able to make more beta cells, and those cells functioned better in the mice, some of which remained cured for more than a year.”
– Jeffrey Millman
The principal investigator continues to report on the highly significant findings.
“These mice had very severe diabetes with blood sugar readings of more than 500 milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL)— levels that could be fatal for a person — and when we gave the mice the insulin-secreting cells, within 2 weeks their blood glucose levels had returned to normal and stayed that way for many months.”
However, the researcher also explains that there are a few more steps to follow before the research can help humans.
First, researchers must test the cells in larger animals and then find a way to automate the new technique to produce the billions of cells required for the millions of people that have type 1 diabetes.
Is migration part of the 'skin care routine' of whales?
Written by Maria Cohut Ph.D. on February 26, 2020 - Fact checked by Allison Kirsop, Ph.D. New
For a long time, researchers had thought that Antarctic killer whales migrated once a year to tropical waters to give birth to their young. New research, however, suggests there may be a different reason behind their annual trip.
Share on PinterestAntarctic killer whales migrate to tropical waters every year, but researchers have remained uncertain as to why.
Many whale species migrate once a year from cold waters to tropical waters, and the reasons for this long journey have remained mysterious.
Researchers have hypothesized that similarly to other animals, whales might migrate to a “friendlier” environment with fewer predators and more readily available food to give birth.
However, marine ecologists have observed the presence of small calves in Antarctic waters, suggesting that whales may be able to give birth safely in icy waters.
If so, then they are not obliged to travel thousands of kilometers and endure the dangers of reaching warmer climates to calve.
So what, then, is the real explanation for this behavior? Researchers from the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla, CA, and the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University in Newport may now have the answer.
In their new study paper — which appears in the journal Marine Mammal Science — the researchers explain that they tracked 62 Antarctic killer whales (Orcinus orca) for approximately 7 years, between 2009 and 2016.
Of these, at least three whales made long-distance round trips of up to 11,000 kilometers (approximately 6,835 miles) that took them 6–8 weeks to complete.
These migrations were from the whales’ original environment in icy cold polar waters to lower latitudes and much warmer waters (sea surface temperatures of 20–24°C) and back again.
“Historically, large whale migration has been described as an annual, round trip movement between high latitude, summer feeding grounds, and low latitude, winter breeding areas — a ‘feeding/breeding’ paradigm that has held sway for over a century,” the researchers note in the study paper.
Yet, thanks to their size, killer whales and other large cetaceans are able to maintain their body heat even at low temperatures and could give birth in polar waters.
The team behind the new study argues that whales thus migrate not to give birth, nor even in search of food, but to take advantage of warmer waters to molt — or shed dead skin that could otherwise affect their health.
“I think people have not given skin molt due consideration when it comes to whales, but it is an important physiological need that could be met by migrating to warmer waters,” says lead author Robert Pitman, Ph.D.
The researchers argue that whales travel to tropical waters to allow their skin metabolism to regulate molting without affecting body heat, which is more easily preserved thanks to the warm waters. In their study paper, the authors write that:
“[I]nstead of whales migrating to the tropics or subtropics for calving, whales would be traveling to warm waters for skin maintenance and perhaps find it adaptive to bear their calves while they are there.”
Many animals, such as snakes, shed their entire outer skin periodically, and many more, humans among them, continuously shed dead skin cells.
Cetaceans, including whales, do both, the researchers note. However, environmental conditions may sometimes interfere with this maintenance process.
The team explains that Antarctic killer whales often take on a yellowish discoloration. This, they say, is a result of the skin becoming covered in a film of diatoms, or microscopic algae, which suggests that they are not experiencing their normal, “self-cleaning” skin molt.
When they do molt, the film of diatoms also falls away, revealing the clean patches of white skin once more.
“Although killer whales in Antarctica are often coated with a yellow diatom film, at other times, the same individuals can be clean, without a hint of yellowing,” the researchers write.
“[W]hen killer whales migrated to the tropics and molted their skin, they would also shed the diatoms and return to Antarctica clean,” they add.
The researchers say that, though calving may also usually take place upon the whales’ arrival into tropical waters, this process may actually be coincidental.
“Basically, the feeding is so good in productive Antarctic waters that the relatively small, warm blooded killer whale has evolved a remarkable migration behavior. This enables it to exploit these resources and still maintain healthy skin function,” says study co-author John Durban, Ph.D.
The momentous annual migration of whales, the investigators note, has an important impact on local ecosystems, making them predators and prey in different locations, during different seasons.
While they argue that skin maintenance processes may be the main drive behind some large cetaceans’ migratory habits, the researchers nevertheless point out that this hypothesis requires more investigation.
Future research, they say, should aim to analyze skin growth patterns in both migratory and nonmigratory whales, in polar and tropical waters, all year round, in order to verify the current argument
Anosmia Awareness Day: What is anosmia?
Written by Phil Riches on February 26, 2020 New
Chrissi Kelly founded AbScent, a charity and support group for people with anosmia, after doctors diagnosed her with the condition in 2012.
Ahead of Anosmia Awareness Day (February 27), we spoke with Chrissi, and Debbie Babbitt, a member of the AbScent community, about the lack of information surrounding the condition, and their mission to create a knowledge-based support network.
Share on PinterestAbScent aims to facilitate patient driven approaches to managing smell loss, according to founder Chrissi Kelly (pictured).
Anosmia is the complete loss of the sense of smell. It typically results from a head injury, a problem with the nasal passages, or a severe viral infection of the upper respiratory tract.
In rare cases, people are born without a sense of smell when doctors call the condition congenital anosmia.
Other types of smell dysfunction include:
Hyposmia, which is the partial loss of the sense of smell.
Parosmia, which is when the perception of smells becomes distorted, so pleasant smells start to seem unpleasant, or an odor appears to change intensity.
Phantosmia, which is when a person believes that they can smell something, but it is not actually there.
Below is our discussion with Chrissi (CK) and Debbie (DB).
They talk about the effect that anosmia has had on their lives and why there’s reason to be hopeful going forward.
CK: I started AbScent about 3 years ago, with the aim of facilitating patient driven approaches to care and management of smell loss.
I lost my sense of smell after a virus in 2012, and, at that time, I found that there were very few resources regarding the condition. The support groups that I found on Facebook were lacking in scientifically established information, and many of the suggested remedies were — on the wild side.
My ENT [ear, nose, and throat specialist] told me about smell training, so I read up on some of the published literature, and it seemed very helpful. The issue was that there was no set protocol, so I started experimenting on myself to find the best method.
I was applying essential oils to absorbent paper and then keeping these in the bottom of the jar, and I realized that, by keeping them in the fridge, they retained their smell for longer.
I was excited about this and wanted to make the information available to as many people as possible, so I started a Facebook group and a website with links to relevant research and the latest scientifically backed information.
People with chronic conditions are often left feeling powerless, and it was clear to me that having conversations within the anosmia community was valuable. This led to me starting the AbScent charity.
The misinformation circulating online was a huge concern to me. A lot of people were discussing under researched theories with little or no scientific backing.
Not all smell loss is the same, and people can develop anosmia for many reasons, including head injuries, chemotherapy, cocaine use, and exposure to solvents.
We have launched a Sense of Smell Project on the website, asking people questions about their condition. We’re collecting data on how people adapt to these changes with a particular focus on parosmia, where a smell can be so distorted that it causes actual harm.
This can interrupt a person’s relationship with food, causing overeating or anorexia, and affect their lives in a serious way. Prof. Thomas Hummel from Germany is a world leader in smell dysfunction, and he is working on this project alongside us.
We are also focusing on research into the molecular basis of parosmia, and looking at why these foods are making life so unbearable for some people.
Dr. Jane Parker is a food chemist at Reading University [in the United Kingdom], and she has some theories regarding this. She’s currently looking at the constituent molecules that enter a person’s nose when they smell food, and the results of this will be published later this year.
There’s a lot of international interest in what we’re doing, and it should be noted that all of this arose from listening to patients.
DB: In March, 2019, I got a bad upper respiratory infection [URI] that my doctor said was a virus, so no antibiotics were prescribed. As I began recovering, I noticed I couldn’t taste my food and assumed it was a temporary situation.
However, after the URI cleared up, I realized it was my sense of smell that was gone. At the time, all I could taste were the things you pick up on your tongue through your taste buds: salt, sweet, sour, spicy, and umami.
After 2 months of smelling nothing, I started to experience parosmia, which distorted my sense of smell and flavor. This phase lasted about 6 months and was very challenging.
The world smelled disgusting most of the time, and many foods were repulsive. I really struggled with the condition during this period.
In the past two months, I’ve started to get more flavor in my food and can smell some things, but not much.
I believe I am now in hyposmia, or partial smell loss. There are still many things I simply cannot eat, and it’s challenging to eat a well-balanced diet, but it’s definitely improving.
CW: I have a history of sinus infections and various allergies — I’m mildly allergic to dust mites, for example — but one sinus infection in 2012 seemed to push me over the edge. I then overused a nasal spray, causing further damage.
Nasal sprays are very addictive, and often exacerbate or even cause further problems if used for much longer than 1 week.
One of the main issues with anosmia is that it’s impossible to work out what’s gone on in a person’s nose weeks after the event, which is typically the time a person will first see an EMT.
By this point, the damage has often been done, and smell loss is trickling into other areas.
It can interrupt a person’s relationship with food, cause anxiety about safety issues, and cause a person to be self-conscious about body odor. This can also lead to issues with intimacy.
I think we need to aim for healing and improvement rather than a complete cure, as being put back together exactly like we were before is not an option.
DB: Part of feeling satiated from eating is the flavor and enjoyment of the meal. Without flavor, I wasn’t feeling satisfied and, at first, was eating more than I needed.
I kept searching for the food that I was sure could “breakthrough,” but that isn’t the way this works. So, I’ve gained a little weight, and I’m not happy about that.
I do worry about eating food that has gone bad and rely on my husband to taste things for me.
I can’t smell smoke or gas, so those are concerns, but I have smoke detectors and try not to be too paranoid about it.
I’ve given up cooking for now, but I’m hoping for recovery and a return to normal. If not, I’ll have to adapt to a new normal.
CW: My appreciation for color has greatly increased, and there is an additional joy when it comes to experiencing nature.
So many of us experience depression, and my GP said, “you’re depressed because you can’t taste food.” However, it’s not that simple.
Our olfactory complex is in the most central part of our brain — in the medulla — and that’s where things, such as our emotions and the fight or flight instinct, are located.
When you stop smelling, your olfactory bulb will lose volume, and this can correlate with feelings of depression. Likewise, people who are clinically depressed can have reduced bulb volume.
We’re constantly picking up smells at a subconscious level, and since my smell has recovered slightly, I notice that the smell of morning and night is different — as is the smell of summer and autumn. These are things that I had not noticed before.
DB: I have been doing smell training since the very beginning, having discovered it through AbScent.
I made my own kits and, for at least 6 months, practiced with the essential oils at least 2–3 times each day. At first, I couldn’t smell a thing, but, over time, I became able to smell them all and tell them apart.
I went to an ENT who prescribed saline nasal rinsing twice a day with budesonide [a steroid] added to the rinse. It’s supposed to help with any cell inflammation to maximize the benefits of smell training. I’ve been doing that since August and will continue for a full year.
Through the AbScent Facebook community, I learned about a vitamin A nasal oil that is supposed to help with cell regeneration, but it’s so hard to know what is helping outside of the smell training.
I also take alpha-lipoic acid daily, as that is supposed to help with nerve regeneration.
CW: It is so important to start smell training, and I think smell awareness is a better name for the process. When you lose your smell, it is easy to become frustrated and stop paying attention to your nose.
Smell training works on a number of different levels, and it’s a cascade of brain processes. The brain matches smells to memories and emotions, which is why a smell can evoke a memory of your Grandma’s kitchen — but it can’t help you remember a phone number.
The top-down process is a really important aspect of smell training. It’s a little like mindfulness in that it teaches you to really be present in the smell.
It allows you to listen to your body’s experience at that moment and, if you don’t find anything immediately, to wait for it to develop slowly.
Recovering people often smell slowly, whereas a healthy nose smells instantly. The rewiring is different, and it takes longer, so when you smell something, and you try to remember when you’ve previously been exposed to it, the more likely you are to regain that smell.
Smell training is like physiotherapy for the nose. It has to be done twice a day for a minimum of 4 months. It takes patience — and compliance is a problem.
People can access the app that we’ve created by completing the Sense of Smell Project questionnaire on our website. It only takes 10 minutes, and once completed, a person will have full membership.
This data is essential in allowing us to discover more about how different people react to different smells.
Through my eyes: Hidden dental infections
Written by Pamela Wild on February 7, 2020 New
It was 2011, our little boy was 5 years old, and our life was the stuff of dreams.
I was a stay-at-home mom, and I filled my days playing with our son, growing vegetables in our immense garden, and spending time with my husband and family on the weekends. Our days were filled with song and happy times. Then, it happened.
Share on PinterestI was disabled for 8 years until I had treatment for hidden dental infections, making a complete recovery after surgery. Image credit: Gavin Wild, 2020.
My son was in his last weeks of preschool when I hurt my neck, or so it seemed at the time. It felt sore around the voice box, as though I had somehow pulled the muscles there.
Being a registered nurse and a massage therapist, I know how to address these kinds of problems, so I treated it with rest and ice, but it did not respond.
Every day, the pain got worse, and within 2 weeks, I was completely disabled.
I was unable to talk, chew food, use my arms, turn my head, or stand upright without debilitating pain.
I sought the help of doctors, but they were baffled. They thought that the voice box might have torn the muscles, and they carried out tests, only to find nothing. I tried a course of steroids to take down the inflammation, but it only got worse. That was the first clue, but I wouldn’t figure that out for years.
Years went by, and I spent 8 years in one room, for the most part. I had a microwave and a little fridge in my bedroom. We had a lot of help from my family, but it still wasn’t enough, so we had to hire help for our son after school.
About 4 years into my illness, my husband took a job 90 minutes from our house, but we couldn’t move because I was too sick. So for years, he drove a total of 3 hours a day for work, every day.
Being confined like this, I missed a lot. I missed every school event, every sports game, and every concert that my boy was involved in. I tried to get other people to talk to my son about his activities and take pictures and videos, but it was very difficult. And of course, I couldn’t speak.
Sometimes I thought, “to hell with it!,” and I would try to talk to my son because he was experiencing the usual difficulties of childhood and would need to speak with me. But then, I would be unbelievably sore for weeks afterward, as this only aggravated the condition.
I did everything I could to keep my son’s life normal. He had sleepovers and parties, and we found ways of communicating so that we could remain very close.
I got a voice amplifier for when I had to make phone calls, as it hurt too much to speak loud enough on the phone without one.
I ordered things on the internet when I could, as I was unable to go shopping, but even using my phone that way was painful. I would prop the phone on a pillow on my chest, which helped a little, but my mobile use was limited to a couple of minutes a day due to the pain.
Life was like this for about 4 years, until it got worse. I developed gallbladder pain and subacute pancreatitis.
I worked with a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctor, and he helped improve the condition of my pancreas and gallbladder by prescribing natural remedies and teas. I have always been interested in natural healing methods, and I have had great success using them my whole life.
It was very difficult to get to the TCM doctor, and someone would have to drive me while I was lying down in the passenger seat. I could barely walk, and I was very weak and nauseous.
During this period, in addition to the neck pain, my pancreas and gallbladder were so sore that it would take me 5 minutes to walk the short distance to his office from the parking lot.
There was a bench outside where I would have to lie down to rest before I went in for my appointment. However, as I could see that the treatment was working, we continued to go.
Around this time, my weight started to plummet. I realized that if I didn’t soon figure out the root cause of my problems, I would die.
I spent all my spare time on my phone researching possibilities, and I am very grateful for my education at Case Western Reserve University. As a nursing student at an evidence-based research institution, I had to learn how to read research data discriminately.
That education would be one of the many, many things that contributed to saving my life. I was in excruciating pain all of the time, but I would research as much as possible, usually all day.
I learned everything that I could about the gallbladder, pancreas, and biliary system. I underwent testing for food sensitivities and found that I had many, as well as a few food allergies. Following this discovery, my diet became extremely limited.
Over the next 2 years, I was very sick, and my family feared for my life. My weight went down to 89 pounds, but I could see small improvements from the dietary changes and from using the Chinese herbs.
I continued researching and trying new treatments. It seemed from my research that I was suffering from too many toxins and leaky gut syndrome, so I began to implement a few natural treatments for those conditions as well.
I noticed small improvements with these changes, but I still struggled. Then, I began to develop heart palpitations, and my heart rate became elevated.
I was still focusing on finding the root cause of my problem when I embarked on a detoxifying diet. I used the Gerson Therapy cancer treatment diet, but I saw little improvement.
This diet was very difficult for me to follow because I was stuck in bed, and it requires fresh juices and special recipes. As I was unable to cook, my mother bought freshly squeezed organic juice from the health store, and I paid someone to make the food.
At the same time, I found that a high dose of liposomal glutathione, one of the most powerful antioxidants, would minimize my painful symptoms for about an hour. After taking this, I could talk a little, but the painful symptoms would quickly return.
Unfortunately, my digestion would not tolerate the high doses of liposomal glutathione, so I discontinued its use after a couple of doses. However, it had taught me that a toxin was causing my symptoms.
So, now I had to figure out: What was the toxin causing my painful symptoms, and where was it coming from?
After further research, I suspected that I had infections in my root canal teeth. Infections trapped in the teeth give off all sorts of toxins, and there are many documented cases of people getting better from trigeminal neuralgia and other medical conditions after removing their root canal teeth and the attached periodontal ligament.
I had four such teeth, and I was very encouraged, as it appeared that I had found the source of the toxins.
I contacted Dr. Stuart Nunnally, a dentist in Marble Falls, Texas. He agreed that it was likely that I was suffering from infections, and he requested a panoramic X-ray. I had the X-ray in Ohio and sent it to him digitally. He also suspected that my wisdom teeth extraction sites were infected, believing that I had at least four sites of infection, perhaps even more.
He did a cone CT scan at his office and found that I had nine infection sites: four root canal teeth, one crowned tooth, and all four previous wisdom teeth extraction sites. When the pathology report came back after surgery, I had more than 15 serious infections!
His associate, Dr. Lane Freeman, performed my surgery, and she was great. She carefully removed each infected tooth, cleaned each wisdom tooth site, and I was barely even swollen the next day.
I received intravenous vitamin C, as well as platelet-rich fibrin plugs (made from my blood), which studies show are very important for a speedy recovery. I never even took an antibiotic.
It was very difficult for me to get to Texas for the surgery as I was too sick to fly. My sister flew into town to drive me and my mom, and we had to pack all my food, with me lying down the entire trip. It took us 3 days, and we had to drive through storms and flooding.
But it was worth it. Just hours after surgery, my heart rate was no longer elevated, and I no longer had heart palpitations. They have never returned.
Within a week, I was starting to cook for myself, and I noticed an improvement in my voice immediately. It continued to improve steadily for weeks until it was completely normal all of the time.
I used intravenous vitamin C as part of my recovery protocol in the first year after surgery, as it would really help me when the bacterial toxins were starting to accumulate in the tissues again.
Clearing the body of bacterial toxins following surgery seems to be very important. I would go for a treatment and feel like a million bucks immediately.
It has been almost 2 years since my surgery, and my life is so much better than before! I can talk, chew food, sing, dance, drive a car, play with my son, and do housework. I have also eliminated all of my food allergies and sensitivities. I can eat lots of different foods now, but I still watch ingredients, fat and protein content, and portion size for my pancreatic health.
I have tons of energy, and I realize that I was weak from the toxins for years before my illness. I used to drink loads of tea for the caffeine and energy lift before I got sick, but I don’t need that now.
Even though I lost a lot of muscle lying in bed for all those years, I’m doing physical therapy and getting stronger. I’m also doing cardiac rehab, and that’s going well, too.
I feel very blessed, and I’m so happy that I found the cause of my illness.
There are plenty of studies linking all sorts of medical conditions to root canal teeth, but dentists still carry out millions of root canal procedures each year. I encourage anyone who suspects that they have a health problem because of their teeth to see a biological dentist to determine whether treatment may be beneficial.
I hope that there will continue to be more research in this field, and it’s important always to move forward in hope. Miracles happen every day.
