A potential cure for Type 1 diabetes looms on the horizon – and the novel approach would also allow Type 2 diabetics to stop insulin shots.
The treatment totally cured diabetes in mice for an entire year without any side effects. The discovery, made at UT Health San Antonio, works by increasing the types of pancreatic cells that secrete insulin.
“It worked perfectly,” said Dr. Bruno Doiron, assistant professor of medicine at UT Health. “We cured mice for one year without any side effects. That’s never been seen.”
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Insulin, which lowers blood sugar, is only made by beta cells. In Type 1 diabetes, beta cells are destroyed by the immune system and the person has no insulin. In Type 2 diabetes, beta cells fail and insulin decreases. At the same time in Type 2, the body doesn’t use insulin efficiently.
The therapy is accomplished by a technique called gene transfer. A virus is used as a vector, or carrier, to introduce…
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