Giving someone new insulin-producing cells is only part of the challenge.
Something I’ve learned while reading more about type 1 diabetes research is that getting new insulin-producing cells into someone’s body is a HUGE step.
But then comes another challenge: How do we keep those cells alive and working?
Our immune system is designed to recognize and respond to things it sees as foreign. That protects us every single day… but after a transplant, that same system can recognize the transplanted cells as foreign and attack them.
That’s why transplant recipients typically need immunosuppressive medicines to help prevent rejection.
One commonly used medicine is known as tacrolimus.
Tacrolimus has played an incredibly important role in transplantation, but it also comes with tradeoffs. It can affect the kidneys, raise blood pressure, cause neurological side effects, and can even be toxic to the exact same insulin-producing islet cells researchers are trying to protect.
So researchers have been asking an important question: Can we protect the transplant differently?
That brings us to tegoprubart, an investigational medicine being developed by Eledon Pharmaceuticals.
Instead of relying on tacrolimus, tegoprubart targets a specific immune pathway involved in transplant rejection. Researchers are studying it as part of an immunosuppression regimen designed to protect transplanted islet cells without using calcineurin inhibitors like tacrolimus.
And the results so far are incredibly exciting.
In the Breakthrough T1D-funded University of Chicago study, all 12 participants have achieved insulin independence following their islet transplants.
12 out of 12.
Researchers have also reported no transplant rejection episodes and, so far, none of the kidney toxicity, hypertension, or neurotoxicity commonly associated with tacrolimus-based immunosuppression.
And now, the research is moving another step forward…
A new Breakthrough T1D-funded clinical trial is studying this approach in people living with both T1D and chronic kidney disease… a population that historically has been excluded from islet transplant trials because traditional immunosuppression can further threaten kidney function.
Breakthrough T1D awarded $8.5 million to the University of Chicago to support this study, and Eledon is also a portfolio company of the T1D Fund, Breakthrough T1D’s venture philanthropy fund.
To me, THAT is what progress looks like.
It isn’t simply asking, “Can we replace the insulin-producing cells?”
It’s asking: Can we keep them alive? Can we protect them safely? Can we make the treatment available to more people? Can we reduce the burden that comes with receiving it? And eventually… can we get to a point where little or no immunosuppression is needed at all?
And this is also one of the reasons I have so much respect for the way Breakthrough T1D approaches research.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” That applies to research, too.
These results are incredibly promising. They deserve to be celebrated. But responsible research means recognizing that no single trial, drug, company, or scientific approach should carry the entire weight of finding cures for T1D.
Breakthrough T1D is investing heavily in work like the Eledon tegoprubart studies while also supporting researchers, universities, biotech companies, pharmaceutical partners, and other approaches across the T1D research pipeline.
Because we don’t know which discovery will ultimately become THE breakthrough… or whether the answer will actually come from several breakthroughs working together.
That isn’t a lack of commitment to one promising treatment.
That is the point of having a research strategy.
You pursue what is working. You invest in what is promising. You continue collecting evidence. And at the same time, you keep other doors open.
Tegoprubart is still investigational. Participants still receive other medicines that affect their immune systems, and researchers still need longer-term data to understand durability, safety, and who may ultimately benefit from this approach.
But none of that takes away from how exciting this progress is.
If anything, watching a study move from an idea… to early participants… to 12 people achieving insulin independence… and now to another clinical trial expanding this research to people with T1D and kidney disease shows how science actually moves forward.
Step by step. Question by question. Trial by trial.
And behind every data point is a person who volunteered to help answer those questions… not knowing whether it would work for them, but knowing what we learn could help the people who come next.
THAT’S the kind of progress worth celebrating. 💙
SEE T1D.
#SeeT1D #DiabetesAwarenessMonth #Type1Diabetes #T1D #BreakthroughT1D
