Recovering ‘bodyguard’ cells in pancreas may restore insulin production in diabetics

The key to restoring production of insulin in type I diabetic patients, previously known as juvenile diabetes, may be in recovering the population of protective cells known T regulatory cells in the lymph nodes at the “gates” of the pancreas, a new preclinical study published online October 8 in Cellular & Molecular Immunology by researchers in the Department of Bioscience Technologies at Thomas Jefferson University suggests.

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Breakthrough for new diabetes treatment

 

In experiments on mice and rats, the scientists have managed to both prevent the development of type II diabetes and reverse the progression of established disease. The study is published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, where it is described as a breakthrough in diabetes research. The findings are the result of a joint effort by Karolinska Institutet, the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Australian biopharmaceutical company CSL Limited, amongst others.

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Stop diabetes with insulin tablets

 

Type 1 diabetes is the autoimmune form of diabetes, in which the patients’ insulin-producing beta cells are destroyed by their own immune system.

“We know that if a person has two autoantibodies and one of them is against insulin, there is a 50 per cent risk that they will develop type 1 diabetes within five years. It doesn’t matter how old you are”, says Åke Lernmark, Professor of Experimental Diabetes Research at Lund University in Sweden.

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Sensor detects glucose in saliva and tears for diabetes testing

 

Researchers have created a new type of biosensor that can detect minute concentrations of glucose in saliva, tears and urine and might be manufactured at low cost because it does not require many processing steps to produce.

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Antibodies reverse type 1 diabetes in new immunotherapy study

 

Scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine have used injections of antibodies to rapidly reverse the onset of Type I diabetes in mice genetically bred to develop the disease. Moreover, just two injections maintained disease remission indefinitely without harming the immune system.

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Experimental drug helps diabetes patients lose weight

An experimental drug helped significantly more overweight patients with diabetes shed pounds, compared with placebo, a new study finds. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

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Experimental insulin drug prevents low blood sugar

An experimental insulin drug prevented low blood sugar among diabetic patients more often than a popular drug on the market, a new study finds. The results will be presented Sunday at The Endocrine Society’s 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

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Diabetes drug could treat leading cause of blindness

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have discovered that a drug already prescribed to millions of people with diabetes could also have another important use: treating one of the world’s leading causes of blindness.

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Xenotransplantation as a therapy for type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is caused by autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells. Over 250,000 patients suffer from type 1 diabetes in Germany who are treated with daily insulin injections to maintain glucose metabolism. Replacement of the destroyed beta cells by transplantation of either a complete pancreas organ or isolated human beta cells is the only effective way to cure the disease. However, due to the shortage of organ donors this method can be offered to only few patients. As an alternative approach researchers are exploring xenotransplantation, i.e. transplantation of the organ from another species. The most obvious barrier in xenotransplantation is the strong immune rejection against the transplant. A research team led by LMU’s Professor Eckhard Wolf and Professor Jochen Seissler has now generated a genetically modified strain of pigs whose beta-cells restores glucose homeostasis and inhibit human-anti-pig immune reaction. So far, the efficacy of this approach has been demonstrated only in an experimental mouse model. “Whether the strategy will work in humans remains to be demonstrated,” says Professor Wolf. “Nevertheless, we consider the approach as very promising and plan to test it further in other settings.”

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Gut microbiota transplantation may prevent development of diabetes and fatty liver disease

Exciting new data presented today at the International Liver Congress™ 2012 shows the gut microbiota’s causal role in the development of diabetes and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), independent of obesity.(1) Though an early stage animal model, the French study highlights the possibility of preventing diabetes and NAFLD with gut microbiota transplantation – the engrafting of new microbiota, usually through administering faecal material from a healthy donor into the colon of a diseased recipient.(2)

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