It’s In the News, a look at the top stories and headlines from the diabetes community happening now. Top stories this week: infusion set recall, update on ViaCyte stem cell research, a few new studies look at sleep and diabetes, actual clinical research into cinnamon for type 1 and lots more.
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Episode transcript:
Hello and welcome to Diabetes Connections In the News! I’m Stacey Simms and every other Friday I bring you a short episode with the top diabetes stories and headlines happening now.
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In the news is brought to you by Edgepark simplify your diabetes journey with Edgepark
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Our top story this week…
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A recall of infusion sets. This is the VariSoft infusion set used with Tandem Diabetes Pumps. The recall here isn’t new.. but the FDA has changed the rating to Class 1, its most serious. The VariSoft version is flexible and can be put in place at an insertion angle anywhere between 20 and 45 degrees, it’s usually recommended for people “who are thin or who have scar tissue or limiting potential insertion sites.”
The problem is that the connector can detach from the set - which means no insulin is going in. To date, according to the FDA notice, there has only been one report of injury related to the recall.
www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech...
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An already existing drug may help preserve beta cell function in people with new onset type 1. It’s got a very long name, so it’s usually referred to as DFMO. It inhibits a pathway, which plays a role in the inflammatory responses in autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes. It's sold under a few names for different conditions, including Vaniqa which is a cream for unwanted hair growth in women. It also has orphan designations for treating various cancers, including neuroblastoma.
The new safety study by Sims and colleagues, which was published November 1 in Cell Medicine Reports, enrolled 41 people with type 1 diabetes that had been diagnosed within the previous 8 months, including 31 children. Participants were randomly assigned to undergo oral treatment with DFMO at one of five doses or placebo for 3 months, with 3 additional months of follow-up.
Following a mixed-meal tolerance test at 6 months, the C-peptide area under the curve ― a measure of beta-cell function ― was significantly higher with the three highest DFMO doses compared to placebo (P = .02, .03, and .02 for 125 mg/m2, 750 mg/m2, and 1000 mg/m2, respectively).
www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
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Despite earlier promising findings, it seems unlikely that cinnamon can improve blood sugar levels in people with type 1, or insulin-dependent, diabetes, researchers report.
Previous research has shown that cinnamon appears to help fat cells recognize and respond to insulin. In test tube experiments and in animal studies, the spice led to a noteworthy increase in the processing of glucose. Moreover, in a previous study of people with type 2, or non-insulin dependent, diabetes, those who incorporated a small amount of cinnamon each day for 40 days into their normal diets experienced a healthy drop in blood sugar levels.
But a new study of teenagers with type 1 showed cinnamon made no difference after 90 days .
In fact, "In essentially all outcomes...the trend favored the placebo group, although did not achieve statistical significance," the researchers report.

www.reuters.com/article/us-ci...
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New results from ViaCyte clinical trials - that’s a stem cell-based treatment for type 1 diabetes. The therapy aims to replace the insulin-producing beta cells that people with type 1 diabetes lack. Dubbed VC-02, the small medical implant contains millions of lab-grown pancreatic islet cells, including beta cells. The devices-approximately the size of a Band-Aid and no thicker than a credit card-are implanted just beneath a patient's skin where it is hoped they will provide a steady, long-term regulated supply of self-sustaining insulin. The clinical trial was conducted at Vancouver General Hospital, with additional sites in Belgium and the U.S. Ten participants, each of whom had no detectable insulin production at the start of the study, underwent surgery to receive up to 10 device implants each.
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