I Think Our Prayers Have Benn Answered .

As some of you know my daughter has type 1 diabetes . In the last week diabetics all over the world have heard the cure for this "killer" has been found . I know , I know it's just in it's first tests , but the end is near , I can feel it ! What also makes me proud it was a medical team in Canada , at "Sick Children's Hospital" (Sick Kids) that isolated the cause and the reversal of type 1 & 2 diabetes . This could be the best Christmas gift ever received in our family , as we have over 5 close relatives that have juvenile diabetes . I , we have high hopes that our prayers have been answered .

At this time I'd like to thank the people who supported the J.D.R.F. and ask you to please donate at some time this year . With your generous donations you have witnessed a miracle discovery , with your future donations it will be fulfilled .

I will post a picture of my daughter for a day or so . I think she'll like that .

Her picture has been replaced by her and my favorite hockey player , Bobby Clarke .

Merry Christmas .

God Bless .

The Wallycrawler .

Attention News Editors:

Discovery of a critical role for sensory nerves in diabetes opens door to new treatment strategies

    TORONTO, Dec. 14 /CNW/ - Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children

(SickKids), the University of Calgary and The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor,

Maine have found that diabetes is controlled by abnormalities in the sensory

nociceptor (pain-related) nerve endings in the pancreatic islet cells that

produce insulin. This discovery, a breakthrough that has long been the elusive

goal of diabetes research, has led to new treatment strategies for diabetes,

achieving reversal of the disease without severe, toxic immunosuppression.

This research is reported in the December 15 issue of the journal Cell.

    Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder that affects more than ten per

cent of the two million Canadians diagnosed with diabetes. Studies have

focused on the immune system as the sole offender and research into the

fundamental mechanisms of the disease have been overdue. Pancreatic islet

cells, the cells responsible for the production of pancreatic hormones such as

insulin, play a key role in the disease. In diabetes, islets become inflamed

and are ultimately destroyed, making insulin production impossible. Insulin

deficiency is fatal and current insulin replacement therapies cannot prevent

many side effects such as heart attacks, blindness, strokes, loss of limbs and

kidney function.

    The SickKids research group has long been pursuing links between diabetes

and the nervous system, studying both humans and animal models of the disease.

Recently, the group found an unsuspected control circuit between

insulin-producing islets and their associated sensory or pain nerves. This

circuit sustains normal islet function.

    "We started to look at nervous system elements that seemed to play a role

in Type 1 diabetes and found that specific sensory neurons are critical for

islet immune attack in the pancreas," said Dr. Hans Michael Dosch, study

principal investigator, senior scientist at SickKids and professor of

Paediatrics and Immunology at the University of Toronto. "These nerves secrete

insufficient neuropeptides which sustain normal islet function, creating a

vicious circle of progressive islet stress."

    Using diabetes-prone NOD mice, the gold-standard diabetes model, the

research group learned how to treat the abnormality by supplying neuropeptides

and even reversed established diabetes.

    "The major discovery was that removal of sensory neurons expressing the

receptor TRPV1 neurons in NOD mice prevented islet cell inflammation and

diabetes in most animals, which led us to fundamentally new insights into the

mechanisms of this disease," said Dr. Michael Salter, co-principal

investigator, senior scientist at SickKids, professor of Physiology and

director of the Centre for the Study of Pain at the University of Toronto.

"Disease protection occurred despite the fact that autoimmunity continues in

the animals. This helped us to focus our studies on finding the new control

circuit in the islets."

    Strikingly, injection of the neuropeptide substance P cleared islet

inflammation in NOD mice within a day and independently normalized the

elevated insulin resistance normally associated with the disease. The two

effects synergized to reverse diabetes without severely toxic

immunosuppression.

    The studies were extended to Type 2 (obesity-associated) diabetes, in

which insulin resistance is even more severe, using a number of additional

model systems, thus generating strong evidence that treating the islet-sensory

nerve circuit can work to dramatically normalize insulin resistance in models

of Type 2 diabetes.

    "This discovery opens up an entirely new field of investigations in Type

1 and possibly Type 2 diabetes, as well as tissue selective autoimmunity in

general," said Dr. Pere Santamaria, study collaborator and professor of

Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary. "We have

created a better understanding of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, with new

therapeutic targets and approaches derived for both diseases."

    "We are now working hard to extend our studies to patients, where many

have sensory nerve abnormalities, but we don't yet know if these abnormalities

start early in life and if they contribute to disease development," added

Dosch.

    Other members of the research team included Rozita Razavi (lead author),

Yin Chan, Dr. F. Nikoo Afifiyan, Dr. Xue Jun Liu, Dr. Xiang Wan, Jason Yantha,

Dr. Lan Tang from SickKids, Sue Tsai from the University of Calgary and Drs.

John Driver and David Serreze from The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine.

    This research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health

Research, the Alberta Heritage Foundation, Banting & Best Diabetes Centre, the

Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario, the Canadian Arthritis Network, the

Canadian MS Society and SickKids Foundation.



    The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), affiliated with the University

of Toronto, is Canada's most research-intensive hospital and the largest

centre dedicated to improving children's health in the country. As innovators

in child health, SickKids improves the health of children by integrating care,

research and teaching. Our mission is to provide the best in complex and

specialized care by creating scientific and clinical advancements, sharing our

knowledge and expertise and championing the development of an accessible,

comprehensive and sustainable child health system. For more information,

please visit www.sickkids.ca. SickKids is committed to healthier children for

a better world.

For further information: Chelsea Novak, Public Affairs, The Hospital for

Sick Children, (416) 813-5045, chelsea.novak@sickkids.ca; Robyn Hauck, Media

Relations, University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine, (403) 210-3835,

rlwatson@ucalgary.ca

SICKKIDS FOUNDATION

SICKKIDS FOUNDATION