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Diabetes "Cured" In Mice With Virus Therapy

Posted by timothy on from the please-trick-my-brain-into-acting-like-a-brain dept.

phlack writes "Scientists at Baylor College of Medicine have found a way to treat diabetes in mice by using a virus (with the harmful genes removed) to trick the liver into working as a pancreas. This is still a ways away from working in humans, but it's progress, at least. Info can be found at Guardian and Science Daily."

5 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. As a diabetic by devphil · · Score: 3, Insightful


    I have to wonder what takes the place of the liver. (Articles have been /.ed into dust.)

    Given the choice between a normal liver plus insulin injections, versus a "virtual pancreas" and some unknown liver treatment, I think I'd stick with the devil I knew.

    More precisely, I know how my body reacts to insulin injections. Nobody knows how it would react to - ah screw it, I can't seem to express this thought coherently.

    --
    You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
    1. Re:As a diabetic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > I have to wonder what takes the place of the liver. (Articles have been /.ed into dust.)

      This prototype treatment only affects a small portion of the liver; it caused the growth of cell islets that produced insulin and three pancreatic hormones. Liver function was apparently unaffected by the growth of the islets. The goal is a one-time shot to induce the islets' growth. After that, they're self-maintaining just like the other liver tissues.

      It did temporarily (for four months) cure the diabetes, so it does look promising. But it's not nearly ready for human use.

  2. Problem of autoimmune destruction not solved by baz00f · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I just read the Nature Medicine article and the authors speculate that they were able to induce differentiation of hepatic stem cells or hepatocytes into islet-like cells, and it looks very convincing. A potential major shortcoming of this approach is not addressed, which is that in type I ("juvenile") diabetes, the islet cells are destroyed by an autoimmune response. Thus if you generate new self "pseudo islets", you may have present the very antigens that led to their destruction in the first place. The reason that is not a problem in this experiment is that the authors artificially destroy the islets with the toxin streptozotocin. The real test would be in an animal model that mimics type I diabetes, like the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse. I hope and assume that is the next critical experiment.

  3. Swapping problems by mnmn · · Score: 2, Insightful


    Now the mice will have to deal with a brand new problem.. dysfunctional livers, which will then be augumented with normal livers from other 'failed' mice. I'm sure most diabetics patients will prefer the frequent needle.

    --
    "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
  4. Re:Now by orangesquid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    cat /dev/consciousness >/dev/slashdot:
    Actually, who knows---maybe the Appendix is really there as a scratch organ for virus therapy techniques! Kind of like a /tmp ?

    --
    --TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive