Giant Step Toward New Diabetes Treatment Giant Step Toward New Diabetes Treatment From stem cells to billions of human insulin-producing cells Harvard stem cell researchers today announced that they have made a giant leap forward in the quest to find a truly effective treatment for type 1 diabetes, a condition that affects an estimated 3 million Americans at a cost of about $15 billion annually: With human embryonic stem cells as a starting point, the scientists are for the first time able to produce, in the kind of massive quantities needed for cell transplantation and pharmaceutical purposes, human insulin-producing beta cells equivalent in most every way to normally functioning beta cells. ههه‌گاوێکی مه‌زن به‌ره‌و نزیکبوونه‌وه له چاره‌سه‌ری نوێ ی یه‌کجاره‌کی نه‌خۆشی شه‌کره له جۆری یه‌که‌مدا ئه‌م توێژینه‌وه نوێ یه مژده‌یه‌کی دڵخۆش که‌ره‌یه بۆ توشبووانی نه‌خۆشی شه‌کره له جۆری یه‌که‌م که هیوا یه‌کی نوێ یان پێ ده‌به‌خشێت که به ته‌واوی چاره بکرێن له رێگه ی چاره‌سه‌ر کردنه به قه‌ده خانه‌ی کۆرپه‌له یی که ده‌توانن پاش ئه‌وه‌ی جێگیر کران له په‌نکریاسه بگۆڕین بۆ خانه‌ی بێتای به‌رهه‌م هێنه‌ری ئینسۆلین و به‌و شێوه‌یه‌ش که‌سه توش بووه‌که ده‌بێته‌وه به خاوه‌نی ئینسۆلینی خۆی . شایه‌نی باسه چاره‌سه‌ر کردن به قه‌ده‌خا‌نه‌کان شۆرشێکی نوێ و پزیشکی یه هیوایه‌کی دڵخۆشکه‌ره بۆ چاره‌سه‌ر کردنی زۆربه‌ی نه‌خۆشیه فه‌سله‌جه‌یه‌کان و تیکچوونه ئه‌ندامیه کانی له‌ش Doug Melton, who led the work and who 23 years ago, when his then infant son Sam was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, dedicated his career to finding a cure for the disease, said he hopes to have human transplantation trials using the cells to be underway within a few years. “We are now just one pre-clinical step away from the finish line,” said Melton, whose daughter Emma also has type 1 diabetes. A report on the new work has today been published by the journal Cell. Felicia W. Pagliuca, Jeff Millman, and Mads Gurtler of Melton’s lab are co-first authors on the Cell paper. The research group and paper authors include a Harvard undergraduate. “You never know for sure that something like this is going to work until you’ve tested it numerous ways,” said Melton, Harvard’s Xander University Professor and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. “We’ve given these cells three separate challenges with glucose in mice and they’ve responded appropriately; that was really exciting. “It was gratifying to know that we could do something that we always thought was possible,” he continued, “but many people felt it wouldn’t work. If we had shown this was not possible, then I would have had to give up on this whole approach. Now I’m really energized.” The stem cell-derived beta cells are presently undergoing trials in animal models, including non-human primates, Melton said. Elaine Fuchs, the Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor at Rockefeller University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator who is not involved in the work, hailed it as “one of the most important advances to date in the stem cell field, and I join the many people throughout the world in applauding my colleague for this remarkable achievement. “For decades, researchers have tried to generate human pancreatic beta cells that could be cultured and passaged long term under conditions where they produce insulin. Melton and his colleagues have now overcome this hurdle and opened the door for drug discovery and transplantation therapy in diabetes,” Fuchs said. And Jose Oberholzer, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Endocrinology and Diabetes, and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and its Director of the Islet and Pancreas Transplant Program and the Chief of the Division of Transplantation, said work described in today’s Cell “will leave a dent in the history of diabetes. Doug Melton has put in a life-time of hard work in finding a way of generating human islet cells in vitro. He made it. This is a phenomenal accomplishment.” hsci.harvard.edu/news/stem-cells-billions-human-insulin-producing-cells
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 11:17:19 +0000
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