Carolyn N. Kinder
Gene Therapy is an insulin delivery system that has not been used on humans but scientists have used genes in the past to induce production of insulin in rats. When inserted into rat liver cells, a gene developed by team of researchers drove the cell to produce insulin. But the problem is that the cell produces too much insulin and the animal died from low blood sugar.
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Scientists think that the big challenge that must be overcome is to create an insulin gene that is regulated, that can create more insulin when needed and that can turn itself off when necessary. The potential of gene therapy is that diabetic patients would not have to give themselves insulin shots or make decisions about how much insulin must be given because the gene would make that decision.
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It is important to understand that human insulin gene is separate from rat genetic material. In humans cells carrying the foreign genes will be destroyed with time, and the genes will no longer work. Scientists reported going forward that a harmless virus needs to be identified that can carry the new insulin to a permanent spot in a cell's genetic material.
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Vaccine and Diabetes
The relationship between vaccines and diabetes is much talked about among scientists. They have developed a drug that stops the destruction of pancreatic beta cells in human.
The vaccine has a molecule that is identical to part of the islet cells (they produce insulin). When you add this molecule to human blood it stops the body's white cells from destroying beta cells. The drug is a peptide, a type of protein. By modifying a fragment of the protein, the developers created a drug that can block the activity of immune cells that attack the pancreas. It deactivates the cell that attacks the pancreas without interfering with the rest of the body's immune system. Vaccines offer the possibility of preventing type1 Diabetes in people at risk.
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