Since she was three years old, today 29-year-old Amanda Ljungberg has lived entirely on the conditions of the disease. Despite the fact that it is not noticeable on the outside, her entire everyday life is affected by diabetes type one. She is not one of the first two test patients but is hopeful about the new research.
– Type 1 Diabetes for me and many others affects my everyday life extremely much and to have the opportunity to start living instead of surviving would have been magical, she says.
It is the cells of the pancreas that do not produce enough insulin and she has had to inject it herself in the form of a syringe or pump, a treatment that most people with type 1 diabetes are forced to do.
– I dream every day about being cured of my type 1 diabetes, says Amanda Ljungberg.
Close to passing out all the time
She has had to deal with the disease her whole life and has lived in constant worry because of it. Already as a teenager, she noticed that she could not live like everyone else, she says. From when she should rest her dog or how she sleeps at night – everything is determined by her blood sugar level.
– I’m very close to passing out or lying down and throwing up somewhere all the time. It is enough that my pump stops working or that I happen to take too much insulin or that it is too cold outside when I go out for a walk. And it is a constant worry.
World-unique project – in Uppsala
Researchers at the University Hospital in Uppsala will now test a new treatment where the insulin-producing cells have instead been genetically modified so as not to be detected by the immune system. It is a world-unique project and the first time it has been done on humans.
They will have cells transplanted into their forearm and will then be followed up for a year.
– We hope to be able to give them a treatment with insulin-producing cells and replace their own lost insulin production, says Per-Ola Carlsson who is senior physician for diabetes at the Academic Hospital in Uppsala.
Among other things, the researchers will investigate whether the cells survive and resist the immune system and whether they are able to stabilize blood sugar.
“I get really teary-eyed”
Amanda Ljungberg finds it difficult to put into words how much it would mean to her if the study went as planned.
– I don’t even think it’s possible to answer really, but it would have changed everything, says Amanda Ljungberg, with tears in her eyes.
– I get very teary-eyed. I have lived with this almost all my life, since I can remember. It is often terrible and so few people see it, she says.
– Should it succeed, it would be an incredible success and create an opportunity to cure type 1 diabetes, says Per-Ola Carlsson who is senior physician for diabetes diseases at the Academic Hospital in Uppsala.