Gut Buddies

Insulin-producing beta cells can be ‘reborn’. This article outlines groundbreaking research showing that pancreatic alpha cells are capable of changing naturally and spontaneously into insulin-producing beta cells.

After creating an artificial form of type 1 diabetes in mice by destroying 99% of their beta cells, and then giving them insulin therapy to keep them alive, the scientists observed alpha cells spontaneously change into functioning beta cells, a process which continued until enough alpha cells had converted into beta cells to allow cessation of insulin therapy.

Even if such a process occurs, or could be induced, in humans, the immune assault which kills the beta cells would arguably continue to attack any reprogrammed cells, which is why people who have had transplants of insulin-producing cells must eventually return to using insulin.

Although the article doesn’t mention the possibility, one can’t help wondering whether an appropriate dose of helminths might successfully control the autoimmune response and preserve the new beta cells.

‘I was stung by 1,500 bees and I feel great.’ This article reports on the ‘tremendous relief’ experienced by an MS sufferer who was bedridden before trying Bee Venom Therapy (Apitherapy) in which she received 1,500 bee stings to specific sites on her back over 18 months. She is now reportedly ‘back on her feet’, with a much improved quality of life.

There are two types of MS, study reveals. This piece outlines new findings that may revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of MS and give significant hope to sufferers. It appears that there are two types of MS, determined according to whether a patient has Th1 or Th17 immune responses, and that a simple blood test may be able to differentiate between the two. 

The study also showed that only one type of MS responds to beta interferon – generally considered the best conventional treatment – and that the second type may actually be made worse by this treatment. 

UV light may benefit MS, beyond vitamin D. Whilst it has been known for three decades that MS is much more common in higher latitudes than in the tropics, and that vitamin D may reduce MS symptoms, new research suggests that the ultraviolet portion of sunlight could play an even more important role than vitamin D in preventing and/or controlling MS.

Bacterium may be new anthelminthic. A toxin produced by the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) could potentially become a treatment for roundworm infection.

Used as a pesticide for decades by organic farmers, this bacterial protein has also been found to kill intestinal parasitic roundworms in mice and may become a treatment option for humans, perhaps replacing albendazole, the current World Health Organization-approved treatment, to which hookworm and some other parasitic nematodes have shown signs of resistance.

As someone who is hosting hookworm as a therapy, this article gives me some cause for concern, as it mentions that some plants have been genetically modified with Bt genes since 1996 so that crops such as corn and potato can themselves produce the crystal protein, providing protection from insects without the use of pesticides. What concerns me is whether eating these GM foods might have an adverse effect on my highly prized team of gut buddies.

Infection with tick-borne parasite may suppress malaria. This new study suggests that monkeys chronically infected with babesia, a tick-borne parasite, are able to suppress malaria infection when exposed to a simian malaria parasite.

Can evolution explain the rise in certain diseases? This article calls for the adoption by physicians of an evolutionary perspective on health and disease instead of the traditional, Newtonian view of the human body as a perfectly designed machine.

Evolutionary concepts have already helped to explain why some diseases are so prevalent and difficult to prevent: the elimination from our lives of bacteria and worms has resulted in more allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases, and our lack of adaptation to new risk factors in modern society, such as tobacco, alcohol, a high-fat diet and contraceptives has resulted in higher rates of cancer.

Further insights may help to explain why disease is generally so prevalent and difficult to prevent – perhaps because natural selection favors reproduction over health, biology evolves more slowly than culture, and pathogens evolve more quickly than humans.

Acne drug/ulcerative colitis link again demonstrated. New evidence has been found of a cause-and-effect relationship between the acne drug isotretinoin (Accutane) and ulcerative colitis – though not Crohn’s disease – which suggests that patients on the medication are four times more likely than non-users to develop colitis within a year. The risk of developing this disease appears to climb in tandem with a patient’s daily dose of the drug.