An effective treatment for type 1 diabetes by transforming stem cells into beta cells that produce insulin has been developed by a team of Harvard University scientists.
Stating that their hunt to find a cure for type 1diabetes has taken a giant leap forward, the scientists said the disease afflicts at least 3 million people in US, who spend at least $15 billion for its treatment every year.
When the immune system devastates the cells that control the levels of blood sugar, the disease gets triggered in the patients.
The Harvard University scientists made use of the stem cells to create millions of these cells in laboratory environment.
Early tests on mice in laboratory indicated that the cells can treat the disease, which according to experts is a major medical breakthrough.
Scientists said the beta cells located in the pancreas pump out the insulin in order to cut down the levels of blood sugar.
However, the immune system of a body may turn against these beta cells thereby killing them. This could leave people with a fatal disease as the patients will not be able to regulate their levels of blood sugar.
This type of disease is different in comparison to the common type 2 diabetes, which is due to poor human lifestyle.
Prof Doug Melton had led the Harvard team. Prof Melton actually started the hunt for a cure 23 years ago when his son was diagnosed with the disease.
Later, his daughter had also developed the type 1 diabetes.
Since then, Prof Melton has been trying to use stem cell technology to replace the roughly 150 million beta cells that were missing.
Prof Melton found the right cocktail of chemicals that can transform the embryonic stem cells into active beta cells.
The results of the tests on mice having type 1diabetes, which were published in the journal Cell, revealed that the lab-manufactured cells were able to produce insulin and control the levels of blood sugar for many months.
Speaking on the development, Prof Melton said the research is now one pre-clinical stage away from developing the cure. However, when injected into a human body the beta cells could still encounter an immune assault and getting destroyed in the process.
He feels that more research is needed before a cure found.
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRJ) funded the Harvard research. Sarah Johnson of JDRF said the process of replacing cells that produce insulin and also turn off the immune response, which causes type 1diabetes, is a major goal of the scientists.
Stem cell scientist of University College London Prof Chris Mason said if this upgradable technology is proved that it works even in the manufacturing facility, the impact on diabetes treatment will be on a par with bacterial infections and antibiotics.
Meanwhile, Prof Melton has been collaborating with Daniel G. Anderson, a professor of applied biology, the Institute of Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and the Koch Institute under the MIT, to develop a device that protects the cells.
Cell transplantation is still in an experimental state in the treatment for diabetes. It uses cells from cadavers and also needs the use of strong immune-suppressive drugs.
This treatment process is available to only a small number of patients.
