An experimental therapy that
reprograms the immune system then spurs the growth of healthy
insulin-producing cells reversed late-stage diabetes in mice and
may lead to a cure for people, researchers said.
Mice with Type 1 diabetes, a form of the disease in which
the body’s immune system destroys cells that secrete insulin,
were free of illness after scientists shut down the immune
attack, reprogrammed the errant cells and coaxed the growth of
healthy, new insulin-producers. The study was published today in
the journal Science Translational Medicine.
About 3 million Americans have Type 1 diabetes, which is
usually diagnosed in children, according to the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation. The only treatment is insulin
injected to replace the body’s naturally-occurring version of
the hormone, which is needed to convert blood sugar into energy.
The experimental immune system approach appears promising
because it’s the first time diabetes has been cured in mice with
advanced disease, said Anita Chong, a medical researcher at the
University of Chicago.
“Conceptually, each component isn’t novel, people have
thought about them, but put it together and show it can work?”
said Chong, who wrote an accompanying editorial to the study.
“That’s very exciting.”
There are many more steps before the treatment will be
tested in humans, starting with non-human primate models, she
said in a telephone interview.
Forms of Diabetes
Type 1 diabetes differs from the more common Type 2 form in
that it is an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system
kills the cells needed to produce insulin. In Type 2 diabetes,
the body produces insulin but cells no longer respond to it.
Diabetics must test their blood sugar several times a day,
and sometimes experience hypoglycemia, or dangerously low blood
sugar, while they sleep at night.
In the study, the mice were given antibodies to attack two
kinds of immune cells that kill the pancreas insulin-producing
beta cells. Then the mice had a bone marrow transplant to
replenish the vanquished cells. Bone marrow is where blood cells
are made, and the transplant let the mice make immune cells that
wouldn’t attack the beta cells. A treatment with pancreas growth
factor spurred creation of new beta cells.
The study was led by Defu Zeng, an endocrinologist at City
of Hope medical center in Duarte, California, and funded by the
Iacocca Family Foundation, and private donations from Todd and
Karen Wanek and the Davis family.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Elizabeth Lopatto in New York at
elopatto@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net.
