CURE FOR DIABETES "GENE THERAPY"

The 1st photograph shows an islet of Langerhans that demonstrates insulitis with lymphocytic infiltrates in a patient developing type I diabetes mellitus. This lesion precedes clinical onset of diabetes mellitus and is rarely observed....the middle one describes the diabetic retinopathy on funduscopic examination



Today..diabetes is the most common disease affecting all types of human races...the number of patients having diabetes is increasing each year....many experiments and research is going on for finding a permanent cure for this disease so that the coming generations too could be free from diabetes as it is hereditary..


One of the possible cure could be the culture of beta cells of pancreas producing insulin..here we could culture the beta cells artificially...Now the question arises..do these cells have the ability of "totipotency"...that is can these cells grown on thier own if they are cultured artificially under required conditions...on culturing the beta cells...we could then replace the fresh beta cells with the defective once and the cells could again start producing insulin as per required but not as fresh original cells but then too they can overcome the body requirements of insulin... this way we could have a possible cure for diabetes type 2

Next possible solution and one of the most effective one could be the "gene therapy". Here we can replace the faulty gene that is unable to code for protiens(insulin), with a healthy coding gene.This method would not benefit the current patient but the upcoming generations as diabetes is hereditary too.Till now experiments are bieng conducted in animals like mice and pigs whose endocrinology matches with humans.

In one of the experiments done a gene therapy is developed by researchers has apparently cured diabetes in mice by inducing cells in the liver to become beta cells that produce insulin and three other hormones.

in the research done scientist used a neuroD gene..which is a transcription factor that induces the liver to produce cells that make insulin and the three hormones associated with the pancrea's endocrine system. In this process of gene therapy..the gene is attached to an adenovirus acting as a carrier from which all toxic gene is removed. This viral vector is a very efficient way to introduce genes into liver. Combined with beta cell growth factor called Btc, the gene therapy has completely cured diabetes in mice..

An added benefit is that the cells in the liver also produce glucagon, somostatin and pancreatic polypeptide, which may play a role in controlling insulin production and release.
Further research is going on to cure diabetes completely so that the coming generation do not suffer from this disease. If these experiments are done in human body and if the results are positive with no complications then we could have a complete cure for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes........