Could Your Pain Neurons Hold the Secret of a Diabetes Cure?

Researchers at a Toronto hospital claim to have proven that your nervous system helps trigger diabetes, and thanks to this people in the medical community, including those behind the discovery, are stunned as it opens the door to a potential near-cure of the disease, which could ensure the future wellbeing of millions of people.

For the study, the scientists injected a substance into diabetic mice which worked by counteracting the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas. Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists ‘couldn’t believe it’ when the mice became healthy virtually overnight. He said ‘Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.’

Though the team has warned that they still need to confirm their findings in people, there could be results from human studies within a year or so, and whilst any potential treatment that would benefit the wellness of even some patients is most likely years away from hitting the market, the team remains very excited about the results: ‘I’ve never seen anything like it,’ said study leader and hospital immunologist Dr. Hans Michael Dosch. ‘In my career, this is unique.’

The reason why this discovery is so surprising is that it upsets the conventional wisdom that Type 1 diabetes is solely caused by auto-immune responses, which is the process in which your immune system turns on itself. The researchers also found far more similarities between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes than were previously thought to exist, and that your nerves likely play a role in other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as asthma. According to Dr. Christian Stohler, a leading US pain specialist and dean of dentistry at the University of Maryland, who reviewed the work, ‘The treatment and diagnosis of neuropathic diseases is poised to take a dramatic leap forward because of the impressive research.’

Currently, the only treatment of type 1 diabetes is insulin replacement therapy, which cannot prevent many of the side effects, such as heart attacks and kidney failure. Though immunologists have voiced scepticism that the nervous system plays such a major role in the disease, overall the review of the work has been positive and the team is now setting out to confirm that the connection between sensory nerves and diabetes holds true in humans. According to Dr Salter, nothing is for sure, but ‘there is a great deal of promise’.