Scientists are trying to teach the liver to cure diabetes.
In our clinic, the latest technique has been tested, the essence of which is the “retraining” of liver cells to work as islet cells responsible for the production of insulin in the human body.
Their full scientific name is β-cells of the islets of Langerhans. People with type 1 diabetes mellitus have impairments in the work of this function, as a result of which they are forced to take insulin throughout their lives.
The latest technique has been tested, the essence of which is the “retraining” of liver cells to work as islet cells.
Nevertheless, injections of this hormone do not cure this disease in any way, but only have a supportive effect on the body. Scientists from around the world have long been trying to save this category of patients from performing everyday unpleasant injections by developing a pill form of insulin, but all attempts so far have been unsuccessful.
According to rough estimates, around 30 million people suffer from type 1 diabetes worldwide, with an annual death rate of 150 thousand people.
Dr. Sarah Ferber has managed to make a real revolution in this area! Together with a team of scientists from the biotechnology company Orgenesis, she was able to develop an innovative new technique that allows you to recreate islet cells similar to those produced by the pancreas. This technology is based on the biological and morphological similarity of liver and pancreatic cells.
Dr. Sarah Ferber was able to develop an innovative new technique that allows to recreate islet cells similar to those produced by the pancreas.
Scientists have found that if you take liver cells and add the special PDX-1 gene to them, they begin to produce insulin. The essence of the idea is that when a given gene is added to a cell, a biological mechanism for the production of hormone molecules is triggered in it.
The technology consists of several stages:
- liver cells are removed from a patient with type I diabetes,
- in laboratory conditions they are multiplied until their number exceeds a billion,
- the entire obtained cell population is modified into β-cells of the islets of Langerhans,
- and finally, with the help of a special catheter, they are injected back into the liver of the same person.
While this technique is at the stage of scientific experiments. It is not yet known how well and efficiently the new cells will produce insulin, and whether they will be rejected. In addition, in the course of research and subsequent clinical trials, scientists may have to solve a lot of other side effects or complications.
This technology has been successfully tested 5 years ago on laboratory animals, as well as on human tissues. Now researchers have begun clinical trials in humans. According to the authors of the idea, this unique technology, if all stages of research are successfully completed, will make type 1 diabetes curable and will save millions of people around the world from a serious and dangerous disease.