Diabetes breakthrough: woman produces insulin again thanks to experimental stem cell treatment

In people who have diabetes type 1the body reacts against the cells it creates insulin. As a result, diabetes develops and insulin is no longer produced. Therefore, it is necessary to take it throughout life.

Science is trying to make the patient’s body produce insulin aa again essay in china gave a the first step towards development using reprogrammed stem cells.

It was possible for a woman from 25 years with type 1 diabetes, they start producing their own insulin less than three months after receiving it transplantation cells. He result was published in a specialized journal cell.

A woman was the first person with type 1 diabetes to be treated with cells taken from her own body. Although the intervention was working at the moment, They realize that this is only an intervention that should be evaluated in more patients verify its effectiveness and safety.

Deng Hongkuicell biologist from Peking University, Zhongyang Shenfrom the Key Laboratory of Transplantation Medicine Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and colleagues from other institutions are the scientists who conducted the published study.

Meantime, They have two more patients in follow-up who also received their own reprogrammed cells.

In a dialogue with Infobaevice president of the company Argentine Diabetology Society, Gabriel Rovircommented on the stem cell intervention being developed in China: “It is a strategy that tries to produce insulin from a transplanted cell so that the patient can produce it himself and cannot take it daily. But it must be taken into account that it is still in a very preliminary stage. “It should be evaluated in more people and compared with control groups.”

For an expert who is an endocrinologist from hl British Hospital in Buenos AiresThe biggest challenge is for the reprogrammed cells to be accepted by the body of the transplant recipient and not to create an immune response that leads to the reappearance of type 1 diabetes.

“If efficacy and safety are proven in the future, the intervention could be combined with other treatments that also slow the immune system’s response,” he said.

When a person has type 1 diabetes, their pancreas produces no or very little insulin. Insulin helps blood sugar enter your body’s cells to be used for energy.

Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2 diabetes: About 5-10% of people with diabetes have type 1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCfor its English acronym) from the United States. The indication for insulin application is conventional treatment.

But since the late 1990s, experiments have been developed with stem cells that can differentiate and perform different functions in the body.

Last April, another group of researchers from Shanghaiin China announced that they had successfully transplanted insulin-producing islets into the liver of a 59-year-old man with type 2 diabetes.

The islets also came from reprogrammed stem cells from the patient’s own body, who has since stopped taking insulin.

In a new study published in cellDr. Hongkui and his team extracted cells from three people with type 1 diabetes and returned them to a pluripotent state from which they could be formed into any type of cell in the body. One of those people is a 25-year-old woman who started producing insulin less than three months after her transplant.

A reprogramming technique he developed was used Shinya Yamanaka in Kyoto UniversityJapan, almost two decades ago. However, Deng and his colleagues modified the technique: instead of introducing proteins that trigger gene expression, as Yamanaka had done, they exposed the cells to small molecules. This change allowed more control over the process.

The scientists then used the cells chemically induced pluripotent stem (iPS) for generating groups of islands in 3D. They tested the safety and efficacy of the cells in mice and subhuman primates.

In June last year, the equivalent of about 1.5 million islets were injected into the woman’s abdominal muscles. It was a new site for islet transplants.

Most transplanted islets are injected into the liver, where the cells are not visible. However, by placing them in the abdomen, scientists can monitor the cells with an MRI and remove them if necessary.

Two and a half months later, the woman was producing enough insulin to live without needing supplements, and she maintained this level of production for more than a year.

By then, the woman had stopped experiencing dangerous spikes and dips in her blood glucose, which remained in the target range for more than 98% of the day.

“I can eat sugar now. “I enjoy eating everything, especially stewed meat,” the woman, who lives in Tianjing, said in a phone call Natureafter more than a year since the transplant.

“It’s extraordinary. If it can be applied to other patients, that will be great,” he said. Daisuke Yabediabetes researcher at Kyoto Universitywho did not cooperate with the study and was consulted by the journal Nature.

The results are interesting, but need to be replicated in more people, said Jay Skyler, an endocrinologist University of Miami, Florida, who studies type 1 diabetes This expert also wants to verify that a woman’s cells continue to produce insulin for five years before he considers her “cured.”

As for the other two study participants, Dr. Deng said the results are “also very positive” and that they will reach the one-year mark in November, after which he hopes to expand the study to another 10 to 20 individuals.

Last June, the preliminary results of a study conducted by Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Boston in the United States were presented.

A dozen participants with type 1 diabetes received islets derived from donated embryonic stem cells that were injected into their livers. All were treated with immunosuppressants. Three months after the transplant, all participants began to produce insulin when there was glucose in their bloodstream. Some have become insulin dependent.

Last year, Vertex began another study in which islet cells derived from donated stem cells were placed in a device designed to protect them from immune system attacks. They were transplanted into a person with type 1 diabetes who was not receiving immunosuppressants. That trial is still ongoing.

In Japan, Dr. Yabe is also about to start a trial with islet cells made from donor iPS cells. He plans to develop islets and surgically place them in the abdominal tissue of three people with type 1 diabetes who will receive immunosuppressants. The first participant should receive the transplant early next year.