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Source: ONE News -
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Scientists have discovered a way to make cells found in the
pancreas turn into those that produce insulin, offering hope of a
breakthrough treatment for people with type 1 diabetes.
The research is a collaboration by institutions across Europe and
the US. It shows mice that had chemically-induced diabetes could be
cured of the condition through the manipulation of a single gene
(Pax4).
Commenting on the findings, Australia's Dr Dorota Pawlak said
further work was needed to ensure the technique could be replicated
in humans but the discovery was otherwise "extremely
promising".
"Imagine this scenario. That we could be capable of turning on one
gene, which can then change progenitor cells, which already exist
in the human pancreas, and turn them into functional beta cells,"
said Dr Pawlak, research development manager at the Juvenile
Diabetes Research Foundation.
"We don't have to do a transplant. We'd be using something which
exists already in the individual who has this condition ...
reprogramming them."
It is beta cells located in the pancreas that, in a healthy person,
excrete the insulin needed to regulate the body's blood sugar
levels.
However, in a person with type 1 diabetes the immune system
mistakes these beta cells for an invading organism and it then goes
to work to kill them off.
Finding the gene which - in mice at least - could prompt the
creation of new beta cells was a significant step towards a
potential "cure" for the condition, said Dr Pawlak.
But there is another hurdle in translating the technique to
humans.
"While we are growing new beta cells in humans we would also have
to work on the ability to stop the immune system from continuously
killing them off," Dr Pawlak said.
"But if we could stop that at the same time then those two strains
of medical therapy could really lead to a cure."
The research is published in the international journal Cell.
