Gene therapy hope for diabetes

Gene therapy can trick liver cells into behaving like insulin-producing pancreas cells, and temporarily cure diabetic mice, a group of US researchers reported last week. Their results could eventually lead to a new treatment for people affected by Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes. The team, based at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, described their findings in the journal Nature Medicine.

Type 1 diabetes is caused by the destruction of insulin-producing 'beta cells', which are found in the pancreas, in clusters called islets. A lack of insulin means that people with diabetes cannot control their blood sugar levels properly, which can cause serious kidney, eye and heart problems. Treatment currently involves regular injections of insulin, although trials are underway for a new therapy based on transplanting islet cells. In the latest study, researchers injected diabetic mice with a mixture of two genes: NeuroD, which regulates insulin and islet production, and betacellulin, which triggers the growth of beta cells. To their surprise, liver cells in the mice not only began to produce insulin, but also began to form into islets. 'It's a proof of principle. The exciting part is that mice are 'cured'', said study co-author Lawrence Chan.

Chan says that people with diabetes could one day be treated with new islet cells, generated from their own liver cells. This would avoid the problems of tissue rejection associated with islet transplantation, says Chan.