06:16 PM PST on Monday, December 31, 2007
JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 News JEAN ENERSEN / KING 5 New
After 26 years with diabetes, Suzy Won Davidson knows the drill. She's no
longer the child who once dreamed of a cure.
"We'll find a cure. About five years. Give us five years. So every five
years another five years would go by and I'd say, 'Wow. There's not a cure
yet,'" she said.
Not yet, but Suzy finds renewed hope at the University of California,
Irvine.
In tests on human blood cells, researchers blocked cells responsible for
juvenile diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis, actually
stopping the diseases in rats. Their weapons: sea anemone venom and the rue
plant. At this stage we don't know if it'll be a long term treatment or if
treatment for a period of time will completely suppress the disease and
prevent it from coming back," said Christine Beeton, PhD, Physiology
researcher at the University of California, Irvine.
In autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks the body's own tissue. But
using compounds from the rue plant and the sea anemone, researchers were
able to prevent that without blocking cells needed to fight infection.
"It gives us more clues. It's sort of like putting a jigsaw puzzle together
where the more pieces you can fill in, the easier it is to fill in the rest
of the puzzle," said Dr. Beeton.
It's a puzzle that could lead to clinical trials, perhaps a new treatment.
Suzy's heard that promise before, but this time she's old enough to help
make it happen, and hopefully in her lifetime, it'll become medicine's next
big thing.
Researchers hope to begin testing in humans in the next few years.
There are more than 80 known types of autoimmune diseases