A human being moves and performs his duties only when all his thirty-seven and thirty-eight billion cells have energy. When we eat carbohydrates in particular, the sugar in that food gets into the body and turns into glucose, which becomes part of the blood and moves throughout the body. Then, with the help of a hormone, insulin, it gets the glucose into the cells, which they use for energy.
It is as if the insulin hormone is the key that opens the cell door and lets glucose in. If this door does not open, a person can die due to the absence of glucose, because our brain also uses it to get energy. High blood glucose levels can also lead to serious medical complications. If left untreated, they become life-threatening.
The hormone insulin is produced by the cells of a special part of our pancreas, the islets of Langerhans. Sometimes due to a medical disorder, the human immune system attacks and destroys these cells and they are unable to make insulin. Then the affected person has to take this hormone artificially to stay alive and healthy. This medical disorder is known in medical terms as “diabetes type I”. While bad eating habits also worsen the insulin secretion system. Then this negative condition is called “diabetes type II”.
As mentioned, a type 1 diabetic patient has to take artificial insulin for life, but now due to the advancement of science and technology, an effective treatment for this medical disorder has been born. The greatest benefit of science is that it has saved mankind from many deadly diseases. In the early 21st century, the first form of treatment came in the form of a transplant. In this, some parts are taken from the ‘islets of Langerhans’ of a healthy person and transplanted into the patient’s body. These islets of Langerhans are then stimulated with the help of various drugs. Thus, they start making insulin more and more. In this way, the patient gets rid of artificial insulin. Thanks to this method of treatment, many patients in rich countries have been cured of type 1 diabetes.
The downside of this treatment is that it is very expensive and not everyone can afford it. Secondly, the patient has to take drugs for the rest of his life, due to which the patient’s immune system cannot attack the transplanted islets of Langerhans. These medicines are also very expensive. Thus, the patient gets rid of type 1 diabetes with this treatment, but he gets new problems.
According to an estimate, fifty sixty million people in the world are suffering from type 1 diabetes. This is not an insignificant number. Considering the difficulties of these millions of people, Allah created a new messiah for them, his name is Deng Hongkui. Dr. Deng is affiliated with Peking University, Beijing as a cell biologist.
Last year, Dr. Deng came up with the idea that if stem cells were taken from a patient suffering from type 1 diabetes and transformed into islets of Langerhans cells, wouldn’t this be a much better treatment method? In this way, the patient will not have to take drugs that suppress the immune system. That way he will not have to face at least one problem. As soon as this idea came, Dr. Deng started doing research and experiments to implement his idea.
Twenty years ago, Shinya Yamanaka, a researcher at Kyoto University in Japan, discovered a method of making stem cells from human cells. Stem cells are a special type of cell that can be transformed into any type of cell. So Dr. Deng took fat cells from the body of three type 1 diabetes patients and transformed them into stem cells with the help of genetic engineering.
Now the next phase begins. With the help of genetic engineering in the laboratory, these primary cells were transformed into cells of islets of Langerhans. These prepared cells were then implanted or transplanted into the bodies of mice suffering from type 1 diabetes. The aim was to find out what kind of advantages and disadvantages this method has.
The cells of the islets of Langerhans in the body of the mice were fully developed and started to produce insulin hormone. During this time, no side effects were born. Thus this experiment was successful. When it was fully satisfied that it was possible to carry out this experiment on humans, the project was put into action.
In August 2024, the cells of islets of Langerhans, produced with the help of genetic engineering, were transplanted into the body of three patients in a suitable place where they can be well nourished. Among the three patients, a twenty-five-year-old girl showed the fastest recovery. Just three months later, the islets of Langerhans cells implanted in his body started producing insulin. Thus, he no longer needs artificial insulin. She is now able to eat anything and is living happily.
Thus, Dr. Deng’s brainstorming technique to cure type 1 diabetes was successful. A 25-year-old girl became the first girl to recover from this treatment. Dr. Deng is now conducting research and experiments with colleagues to further improve this technique. The answer is to make it as cheap as possible. In this way, millions of men, women and children of the world who are affected by type 1 diabetes will be able to benefit from this new method of treatment and get rid of the deadly disease. There will be a positive change in their lives and living will become an easy and pleasant process.
