Diabetes cure may be step closer
Updated on 27 February 2008
Scientists believe they may have reversed the effects of insulin-dependent diabetes in a breakthrough that raises the first possibility of a cure for the disease.
Although the research involved mice, the US team is already said to be planning trials with patients.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease which over time destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.
Once the cells are gone, patients depend on regular insulin injections for their survival.
But the new results from Harvard Medical School in Boston indicate that it may be possible to halt the disease and renew the beta cells.
The scientists, led by Dr Terry Strom, used a cocktail of drugs designed to tame the out-of-control immune response attacking the pancreas.
Last year the team showed that a mix of three drugs was able to stop the on-going destruction of beta cells in mice. However, it was still impossible to trigger the regrowth or recovery of lost or damaged cells.
Now the scientists have added an extra ingredient to the mix, an enzyme called alpha 1 anti-trypsin, which is normally produced by the body to ease inflammation.
The new drug cocktail was given to diabetic mice for three weeks. Fifty days after the treatment ended, a significant rise in the number of insulin-producing cells was seen.
The findings, reported in New Scientist magazine, were presented at a medical meeting in Berlin last week.
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