Hope for Type 1 diabetics
The Higuchi Biosciences Center and the Drug Information Center at Kansas University says we've come a long way since history's first insulin shot for diabetes an injection back in 1922 of what was described as a "thick brown muck."
That first insulin shot was given to a 14-year-old named Leonard Thompson. He had Type 1 diabetes. This form of the disease is usually contracted earlier in life than Type 2. It requires daily insulin shots and is more serious than Type 2.
The insulin used to treat Type 1 diabetes originally came from pigs and cows. Today, almost all insulin comes from laboratories, not animals.
Genetically engineered insulin is made with yeast and bacteria. It has fewer side effects and doesn't require that pancreas tissue be harvested down at the slaughterhouse.
In another break from past practice, insulin delivery by methods other than the needle either taken orally or delivered by inhalers is in clinical trials. And work is progressing on being able to transplant insulin-making cells into the body.
So far, success has been limited. But that would be the best solution of all for folks who can't make insulin on their own.
Work out, fight disease
Human sweat contains a protein that acts as an antibiotic against several disease-causing bacteria, say researchers at Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen, Germany. They say the gene for the substance, which they called dermcidin, is active in sweat glands and, besides being effective against several disease-causing bacteria, probably plays a role in the skin's innate immune responses.
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