INSULIN BREAKTHROUGH DELIGHTS DIABETICS!
Daily injections could be thing of the past
AREVOLUTIONARY discovery may one day allow type 1 diabetes patients to ditch their daily insulin shots! Researchers found two drugs, currently approved by the FDA for rare cancers, reawakened insulin production in pancreatic cells destroyed by the autoimmune disease — in as little as 48 hours!
“This regenerative approach is an important advance toward clinical development,” says Professor Sam El-Osta, of Australia's Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute. El-Osta's team focused on the protein EZH2, which silences tumor-suppressing genes and instead promotes cancer. They applied two EZH2 inhibitors to pancreatic cells from both child and adult type 1 diabetes donors and a non-diabetic participant.
The scientists discovered nonworking insulinproducing cells from the diabetics were regenerated into glucose-sensing cells that released the lifesaving hormone! The lab study showed two days of stimulation with the inhibitors was sufficient to restore insulin production.
What's more, their finding was not limited to a specific age group. The trial was determined effective in samples from individuals from ages seven to 61!
The novel therapy could potentially become the first disease-modifying treatment for type 1 diabetes, enabling patients to achieve independence from insulin injections. About 1.45 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, where the insulinproducing cells in the pancreas are killed off by an overactive immune system. Patients must use multiple daily insulin shots or an insulin pump to stay alive. Experts say the therapy could benefit some of the 37 million Americans with type 2 diabetes who are insulin-dependent due to not naturally generating enough of the hormone. Scientists expect the next move to be clinical trials.