Gene Therapy - A Possible Cure for Diabetes

An experimental cure for Type 1 diabetes has been developed by scientists in Houston's Baylor College of Medicine.

Using gene therapy, the team tried to counter the two defects that cause Type 1 diabetes: autoimmune attack and destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells.

Diabetic Diet - Diabetes Mellitus
The diabetic diet most often recommended is high in dietary fiber (especially soluble fiber) and nutrients, but low in fat (especially saturated fat) and moderate in calories.

They used non-obese diabetic mice, which spontaneously develop diabetes due to autoimmunity, just as humans do with Type 1 diabetes.

"A single treatment cured about 50 percent of the diabetic mice, restoring their blood sugar to normal so that they no longer need insulin injections," said study co-author Lawrence Chan, chief of Baylor's diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism division.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's immune system attacks and destroys the beta cells in the pancreas, the insulin "factory" of the body.

Insulin Delivery Devices
Insulin delivery devices have evolved drastically since their invention in 1922. They are all aimed to provide insulin to the patients with minimal discomfort.

The resulting near-complete deficiency of insulin-the hormone that controls blood sugar-leads to a buildup of high blood sugar and thus diabetes.

In this research, Chan said they "added to the original gene therapy approach a protective gene that shields the newly formed beta cells from autoimmune attack." The added gene was for interleukin-10, an important regulator of the immune system.

Blood Sugar Chart
The blood sugar chart gives you the fasting glucose values and glucose tolerance test values for normal people and people with early diabetes and established diabetes. Also use the calculator to find out if you have diabetes.

Past studies showed that interleukin-10 can prevent diabetes development in mice but cannot reverse the disease once it has developed because of the lack of beta cells.

However, when the researchers combined the gene therapy with interleukin-10 into a single intravenous injection, the treatment showed a complete reversal of diabetes in half of the mice during more than 20 months' follow-up.

Scientists Use Gene Therapy to Reverse Heart Failure in Animals
Heart researchers at Jefferson Medical College have used gene therapy to reverse heart failure in animals

Although the therapy did not reverse autoimmunity throughout the body, it protected the new beta cells from the local destructive effect of autoimmunity, Chan explained.

"We developed a protective 'moat' around the new beta cells. We are now developing other strategies to try to fortify the newly formed beta cells and give them better weapons in addition to the moat, in order to increase the treatment's cure rate," he said.

Why the gene therapy did not work in all the mice is unclear. However, Chan said the treated mice that did not have improvements in their blood sugar did gain weight and lived a little longer than untreated mice.

The findings have been presented at The Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Source-ANI