A group of University Health System researchers have discovered a treatment that reverses the course of Type 1 diabetes in mice.
According to Barbara Martin, diabetes educator at the Martha Jefferson hospital, Type 1 diabetes is a genetic disease characterized by insulin deficiency.
"People with Type 1 diabetes produce virtually no insulin at all and depend on insulin injections to survive," Martin said.
Insulin is a hormone that converts sugar to energy in the body, according to the American Diabetes Association Web site.
Led by Jerry Nadler, chief of the University Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, the researchers have found a way to help restore and preserve insulin in diabetic mice.
The afflicted mice were treated with a combination of two existing medications, lisofylline and exendin-4, which helped restore the mice's blood sugar, Nadler said.
"But even more exciting than that, almost all of [the mice] stayed reversed," Nadler said.
Endocrinology professor Craig Nunemaker, who was also involved in the research, said one mouse remained at normal blood sugar levels for 145 days after treatment had ended.
"We took them off the therapy after a month, and without any additional treatment they lived to middle age or beyond," Nunemaker said.
If the medication can be used on humans, it could change how diabetes is treated.
"It could be very significant in principle," Nunemaker said. "It potentially [can] reverse diabetes, so that's no small feat. You'd never have to inject yourself again--that's the theory."
According to both Nadler and Nunemaker, the treatment could potentially be used on humans since lisofylline and exendin-4 have already been shown to be safe in humans.
"The medications we used could potentially be used for people, because they have been used for humans in other trials," Nadler said.
According to Nunemaker, the treatment has an advantage over other therapies because it does not affect all of the patient's immunity.
"It targets a specific part of the immune system instead of targeting it entirely," he said. "The immune system can function normally."
Research for the treatment began almost two years ago, but most of the major developments occurred in the last year, Nadler said. He added that work on the treatment will continue over the next couple of years.
"It's a good team approach here at U.Va.," Nadler said. "We have a lot of people from different specialties working on this together."
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