Genetically Engineered Cells Cure Type I Diabetes
Recent advances in 10 year long gene therapy studies by scientists at the University of Technology in Sydney provide considerable hope of a cure for sufferers of Type I Diabetes.
Type I diabetes affects approximately 15% of Australians. The disease predominantly affects those under the age of 30 although this is not always the case. Type I diabetes is the result of an immune system attack on insulin producing pancreatic beta cells, resulting in the almost total destruction of such cells and the body’s inability to produce its own insulin. If not treated it is a debilitating disease that can lead to death. Treatment of Type I diabetes consists of constant monitoring of the body’s blood glucose levels and injections of insulin several times a day.
Recently scientists of The University of Technology in Sydney have managed to genetically engineer the liver cells of rats to produce, store and secrete insulin in response to the body’s blood glucose levels. This newfound way to produce insulin eliminates the need for insulin injections and is effectively a cure for Type I diabetes.
The rats used in the experiments were infected with chemically induced diabetes. When the genetically engineered insulin gene was stably incorporated into the nucleus of hepatocytes in the liver it was found that insulin was synthesised and processed in the rough endoplasmic reticulum, sorted in the golgi apparatus and stored in the secretory vesicles. When the rats consumed food, their blood glucose levels were elevated. This stimulated the vesicles causing them to fuse to the cell membrane and secrete their insulin content, maintaining the blood glucose levels.
The scientists managed to reverse the rats diabetes for 500 days, declaring it a permanent cure as their life span is an average 2 years. So far this is the most effective discovered cure the medical and ethical issues that are present in other “cures” such as organ and stem cell transplant are absent in the current study. It is estimated that this method of curing diabetes will be available to people in 5-10 years following numerous trials in larger animals
Erin Rigby
42046905
References:
ProQuest Science Journals http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.slq.qld.gov.au/pqdlink?Ver=1&Exp=04-24-2014&FMT=7&DID=1477898911&RQT=309&clientId=48651
International Diabetes Institute
http://www.diabetes.com.au/diabetes.php?regionID=236
