After one treatment, beagles were symptom-free up to four years later.
By Shaunacy Ferro Posted 02.13.2013 at 1:00 pm 8 Comments

Puppies Against Diabetes
Puppies Against Diabetes Wikimedia Commons

Five lucky diabetic beagles have been cured of their canine type 1 diabetes using gene therapy, according to research published in the February issue of Diabetes.

Researchers from Barcelona's Universitat Autonoma previously found the therapy effective in treating mice, but this is the first time gene therapy -- when a patient's DNA is supplemented or changed to treat a disease -- has proven successful in curing diabetes in large animals. Gene therapy encodes a functional gene to replace a mutated one, or inserts DNA that produces a therapeutic protein to treat a disease.

In this case, the dogs were injected with two extra genes that together form a "glucose sensor" that can regulate glucose uptake and reduce excessive glucose levels in the blood.

Four years later, the dogs that received both genes had no symptoms of diabetes and stabilized glucose levels. They recovered a normal body weight and didn't exhibit any secondary complications.

Both genes seem to be necessary for the treatment to work, though, as dogs that received only one of the genes stayed diabetic.

It's not uncommon for dogs to develop type 1 diabetes, in which a lack of insulin leads to an increase in glucose levels. While the canine version of the disease has similar effects to its human counterpart, this experiment may not exactly mirror how the treatment might work in humans -- according to New Scientist, the dogs' pancreatic cells were destroyed by a chemical, whereas in humans with type 1 diabetes, pancreatic cells are killed by the body's immune system.

After further dog testing, the researchers hope to study how the treatment affects humans. And hopefully the post-diabetic pups get a sweet treat in reward.

[New Scientist]

8 Comments

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killerT
02/13/13 at 4:48 pm

Spain did this? Bravo!
It so great to see science in some parts of the world picking up the slack for other regions that seem to be hindering their own progress.

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Miriam47
02/13/13 at 11:09 pm

How do I volunteer to be a guinea pig? I have been diabetic for almost 30 years and I would love to see if this works on humans...

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judiqw
02/14/13 at 8:39 am

I just got paid $6784 working off my laptop this month. And if you think that's cool, my divorced friend has twin toddlers and made over $9k her first month. It feels so good making so much money when other people have to work for so much less. This is what I do,
jump30.com

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tom.189384
02/15/13 at 6:43 pm

Shaunacy Ferro - Type 1 diabetics can eat sweet treats any time; they just need to compensate with insulin. Any carbs need to be "balanced" with insulin, no matter if they are sweet or not.

Conversely, too much insulin will lead to low blood sugar, and needs to be treated by eating carbs.

This is the tightrope Type 1 folks walk... and why they are so eager for a real cure for the disease.

It sounds like the problem with this "cure" is they have not addressed the auto-immune aspect. Until that problem is solved, the body will keep killing off the insulin producing cells of the pancreas, rendering the treatment futile.

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JamieS
02/15/13 at 7:46 pm

"Until that problem is solved, the body will keep killing off the insulin producing cells of the pancreas, rendering the treatment futile."

Futile? I'd prefer one shot every two years to 6 every day. Wouldn't you?

If my immune system destroys the cure again so be it, just give me one month to be my old self again. Just for a little bit. Please!

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JamieS
02/15/13 at 7:47 pm

My sister and I have been type 1 diabetics since childhood, and it was a nightmare. Still is sometimes

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Relatively Lega...
02/16/13 at 5:28 pm

My wife is Type1 and has had complications from it since before I met her. Assuming this works, I imagine it would take some time for the islet cells to regrow in the pancreas. In that time, I wonder if the auto-immune response would adapt to kill them off again so that there would be no period of "normalcy" for the patient.

Exciting research, though, and a big step in the right direction!

-------------
ignorantia legis non excusat

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shaymel
02/17/13 at 9:52 pm

Interesting article from the Canadian National Post on the nervous system causing diabetes and finding a possible and very likely cure. I pray for my son's sake it works!
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=a042812e-492c-4f07-8245-8a598ab5d1bf



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