SAN ANTONIO – A pair of researchers at UT Health San Antonio have come up with a cure for Type 1 diabetes in mice and may have found a way to eliminate the need for insulin shots for Type 2 diabetics.
"Of course it's a big step, from mice to man, but if we could achieve this, it would actually be a cure for Type 1 diabetes," said Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, professor of medicine and chief of the Diabetes Division at UT Health San Antonio. "For people with Type 2 diabetes, they wouldn't have to take insulin shots anymore."
DeFronzo and Dr. Bruno Doiron, assistant professor of medicine in the Diabetes Division at UT Health San Antonio, made the discovery by using a cocktail of molecules to trick the pancreas into producing more vital insulin.
"We can now use your own body to create the medicine, and that's a revolution for the future," Doiron said.
The major breakthrough is very exciting news for Ellie Lopez, who has been battling Type 1 diabetes for 14 years.
Lopez said she constantly struggles with glucose levels.
"You also have to figure out how much exercise you do, or what you are doing that day because it all eats up sugar, too," she said. "So if you take too much medicine, you'll have a low, and that's probably the worst feeling in the world. It's almost like you have to be a mathematician to figure out the right numbers all the time. It's a constant battle."
Lopez hopes that one day, DeFronzo's and Doiron's breakthrough will come true for humans.
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