The health world recently stumbled upon a novel means to restore insulin production in people suffering from type 1 diabetes. Australian scientists have now crafted a reagent that apparently restricts rejection of transplanted insulin-producing cells into type 1 diabetes patients. The research findings can probably aid in treating the ailment.
At the time of the investigation, diabetic mice were offered the reagent for two weeks, starting the day before islet transplantation. The reagent possibly enabled mice to accept the donor cells as their own with no need for immunosuppressive drugs, and no type 1 diabetes. The newly introduced reagent appears as a cloned cell surface receptor that overcomes a harmful molecule known as IL-21 which triggers type 1 diabetes. It was observed that the cloned receptors supposedly compete with similar receptors on the body’s own killer immune cells, preventing them from destroying the transplant.
In this research mice provided with the reagent allegedly accepted the transplants without rejection. Dr Dorota Pawlak, Head of Research Development at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and colleagues presume that the reagent helps to replace insulin producing cells safely in people with type 1 diabetes. Further investigations will be triggered to determine the efficacy of IL-21 neutralizing agent in people.
The research is published in the journal Diabetes.