Rituximab is FDA-approved to treat several autoimmune diseases, including Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).  About 10 years ago there were a couple of clinical trials testing it for T1D, and the results were medium-good. I blogged on those: https://cureresearch4type1diabetes.blogspot.com/search/label/Rituximab Abatacept is FDA-approved to treat adult Rheumatoid Arthritis, as well as Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) in children as young as six.  I blogged on those: https://cureresearch4type1diabetes.blogspot.com/search/label/Abatacept but not on the most recent results, which are here: ht ..read more

(Note: JAKPOT is a name of at least two different clinical trials.  If you are reading about a French clinical trial targeting Rheumatoid Arthritis, that is a different clinical trial.) The site's web page describes the drugs involved this way:  Abrocitinib and Ritlecitinib are in a new class of autoimmune treatments called Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors.  Abrocitinib is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat eczema. Ritlecitinib is being studied as a treatment for several autoimmune diseases, including Alopecia, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s Disease, Viti ..read more

BMF-219 is a drug that inhibits Menin, a protein.  Menin's functions in cells are not fully understood, and may be complex and contradictory.  For example, Menin is generally a tumor suppressor, but inhibiting Menin is a treatment for certain acute leukemias.  It is being developed by Biomea for T1D because it "is thought to act as a brake on beta-cell turnover and growth, supporting the notion that inhibition of Menin could lead to the regeneration of normal, healthy beta cells" according to the company's web site.  The Study The trial started in 2 ..read more

Fenofibrate (also spelled Phenofibrate) is commonly prescribed for high cholesterol and high triglycerides. In 2017, it was the 70th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States with more than eleven million prescriptions.  However, it is not approved for use in children under 18. It is also sometimes prescribed for diabetic retinopathy (eye damage from long term diabetes), and (off label) for gout. However, it also showed some promise in NOD mice (an animal model for T1D), and so one person took it "off label" when they were diagnosed with T1D as a 19 year old.  They did ..read more

This whole blog posting is very US (and US politics) focused, but the issues are similar in other countries.  Also, this blog is trying to describe the existing situation, not argue that the current situation is good, bad, or should be changed.  It is just describing how things are. When I first starting blogging, over 15 years ago, I thought it might be a useful idea to have a "Voter's Guide To T1D" style blog.  I would discuss who to vote for if all you cared about was T1D, why one candidate was the best for T1D research, how your vote would impact T1D research, and so on.&nbs ..read more

My previous blog posting: https://cureresearch4type1diabetes.blogspot.com/2023/12/diamyd-update.html described the main line of DIAGNODE clinical trials designed to get Diamyd FDA approval for people in their honeymoon phase.  You should read that posting for a lot of background material.  In this blog, I'm going to cover two additional clinical trials aimed at expanding the people who can use this treatment and some interesting details about how JDRF is funding this research. DIAGNODE Expansion Trials These two trials are using the same DIAGNODE technique (injecting Diamyd into the ..read more

Levicure is a startup which is currently raising money to fund a phase-II trial for a combination therapy designed to prevent or delay T1D if given during the honeymoon period.  This blog posting is reporting on the results of their retrospective phase-I clinical trial.  That trial has already been completed and is motivating them to move forward with a larger phase-II trial.  The combination therapy used three medicines: GABA, Sitagliptin or Saxagliptin (which are dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors), and Omeprazole (a proton pump inhibitor).  All three of these drugs a ..read more

This clinical trial represents an attack on T1D slightly different than anything I've blogged on before. Pleconaril and Ribavirin are both antiviral drugs.  The idea here is that viruses either cause T1D or contribute to it, and that attacking viruses during the early honeymoon period will do something good.   Maybe delay the onset, extend the honeymoon, or even allow the long term survival of more beta cells to lower long term complications of T1D.   I want to stress that this "virus causes T1D" hypothesis is just that: a hypothesis.  It is held by some researchers, b ..read more

Baricitinib (trade name Olumiant) is a drug which targets the immune system, and is already approved for Rheumatoid Arthritis (since 2018) and Alopecia Areata (since 2022).  Since these two diseases are both autoimmune diseases, like T1D, it makes sense that this drug would be tried for T1D as well.  This drug is called a JAK inhibitor, and it blocks both JAK variants: JAK1 and JAK2.  JAK inhibitors have been an active area of research because of some case studies where they seem to impact T1D when people took them for other conditions.  I blogged on this once before ..read more

At the start of a new year, some bloggers write a posting on the year that was, and a some write a posting on what they expect in the new year.  This posting is a little of each.  The Big News From Last Year Teplizumab! Which became the product Tzield.  Getting a drug approved that actually changed the course of T1D is a big deal.  I know it is for people at-risk, not people who have T1D.  I know it only delays the onset of T1D.  I know it is incredibly expensive.  Those things matter, especially in the short term, but in the long term this is still a huge br ..read more