Type-1 Diabetes Cured In Mice: March 2012

Friday, March 16, 2012

Interleukin-35 by Bettini at St. Judes

Title: Prevention of Autoimmune Diabetes by Ectopic Pancreatic β-Cell Expression of Interleukin-35

Quotes from Abstract:

Interleukin (IL)-35 is a newly identified inhibitory cytokine used by T regulatory cells to control T cell–driven immune responses. ...

Nonobese diabetic RIP-IL35 transgenic mice exhibited decreased islet infiltration with substantial reductions in the number of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and frequency of glucose-6-phosphatase catalytic subunit–related protein-specific CD8+ T cells. ...

[This] led to substantial, long-term protection against autoimmune diabetes ...

These data present a proof of principle that IL-35 could be used as a potent inhibitor of autoimmune diabetes and implicate its potential therapeutic utility in the treatment of type 1 diabetes.

Abstract: http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2012/03/13/db11-0784.short

Saturday, March 10, 2012

CD40 inhibitory peptide by Wagner at University of Colorado

Quotes:

Wagner isolated the specific T-cells that attack the pancreas and cause most cases of Type 1 Diabetes. The research team has developed a drug that attacks those bad cells.

It’s having an impressive effect on mice. The drug is not only preventing mice from developing diabetes, it’s also reversing the effects of diabetes in mice that already have the disease.

News article: http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/03/09/cu-researchers-find-cure-for-type-1-diabetes-in-mice/

Related grant: http://www.diabetes.org/news-research/research/research-database/cd40-as-a-biomarker-in-type-1-diabetes.html
Related research: http://www.jleukbio.org/content/84/2/431.abstract

Thursday, March 8, 2012

XMetA by Bhaskar at XOMA

XMetA is the first antibody specific for the insulin receptor shown to correct hyperglycemia in a mouse model of diabetes. Results of a study conducted by XOMA and confirmed by investigators at the University of California, San Francisco, demonstrate that XMetA has the potential to be a novel, long-acting agent for the control of blood glucose levels in patients with diabetes.
The study by Bhaskar, et al. demonstrated that XMetA markedly reduced elevated fasting blood glucose levels and normalized glucose tolerance in mice experimentally rendered diabetic. After six weeks of treatment, there was a statistically significant reduction in hemoglobin A1c levels in animals treated with XMetA compared to controls (p < 0.05). In addition, elevated non-HDL cholesterol levels were improved relative to control mice (p < 0.05). Hypoglycemia and weight gain were not observed during this study, nor was proliferation of cell growth.

Press Release: http://www.sciencecodex.com/first_allosteric_insulin_receptoractivating_antibody_to_improve_glycemic_control_in_vivo-87483
Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Bhaskar%20XMetA

What is in This Blog?

My goal, starting in 2012, (and including as much before then as possible) is to have a blog entry for every treatment reported to have cured type-1 diabetes in NOD mice, or any other animal.

Each entry in this blog is a report of one cure for type-1 diabetes in an animal.

Each title will be of the form TREATMENT by DOCTOR at RESEARCH INSTITUTION.

Each entry will have the date the cure was reported, one or more links to news reports, press releases, or research papers, and maybe a paragraph on the cure.

But I don't plan to put much analysis or discussion in these blog entries. I'm leaving comments open for now, but I really only want comments to note when one of these cures moves to a later stage of research.

Why This Blog?

This blog exists because of frustration. My frustration at constantly hearing that type-1 diabetes had been cured in mice (again), but never hearing that it was cured in people.

My way of dealing with this frustration is to try to keep track of the number of times people cure type-1 diabetes in animals. After all the first step to understanding something, is to catalog it. You can think of this blog as raw material for future research into type-1 cures in mice.

At the very least, this blog will help the entire type-1 diabetes research community keep track of how many mice cures are developed each year, what happens to them, and how long it takes to happen. I hope that the data found will fuel other types of "research into research" on type-1 diabetes.

About Animal Experiments

Things to remember about experiments on animals (sometimes called "pre-clinical trials"):

* Most research is not successful.

* New research done in animals is at least 10-15 years away from general availability to people.

* Most research done in animals never progresses to people.

* Although NOD mice are generally considered the best animal model of type-1 diabetes, they differ from people with type-1 in many ways.

* Recently we have cured type-1 diabetes in animals many times each year, but so far, none of those cures has turned into a cure for people.