A new, genetically engineered drug shows promise in preventing the rejection of transplanted insulin-producing cells, which is a potentially important early step toward a cure for diabetes, researchers said on Wednesday.
In a study at the University of Miami's Diabetes Research Institute, six diabetic monkeys given the drug, called anti-CD154, along with a transplant of insulin-producing pancreatic cells, became insulin independent.
The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the near future, could be a key development for diabetes patients who need regular insulin injections, researchers said.
"As a transplant immunologist, it's one of the most exciting developments I've seen in 20 years," the study's author, University of Miami researcher Dr. Norma Kenyon, said at a news conference. "As the mother of a child with diabetes, I don't want to raise false hopes. It's a key step forward. We're not there yet."
The immune system of a diabetic destroys cells that produce insulin. As a result, diabetics must constantly monitor blood sugar levels and take regular injections of insulin.
Diabetes affects 15.7 million people in the United States, nearly 6 percent of the population, according to the American Diabetes Association. It is the seventh leading cause of death and has no cure.
It is also a leading cause of blindness and kidney failure, and its victims are up to four times more likely to suffer heart disease or a stroke, the ADA said.
The study showed for the first time that insulin-producing cells, or islets, taken from a donor's pancreas, can be transplanted into monkeys without being destroyed by their bodies and apparently without side effects, effectively freeing the animals from their dependence on insulin.
"If we can get insulin-producing cells transplanted and take up their normal biological function without rejection and without the toxic side effects currently associated with conventional drugs, then it would represent a cure for diabetes," Kenyon said.
Anti-CD154, an immune-system modulator and one of a new generation of genetically engineered drugs, interferes with the early stages of the immune system's reaction to the transplant. But it does not have an adverse effect on the insulin-producing cells, researchers said.
Three of the six monkeys remained insulin-independent for a year without evidence of the toxic side effects normally seen in antirejection drugs.
Clinical trials with the drug, manufactured by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Biogen, were expected to start soon at the University of Miami, hospital officials said.
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