New antibody drug reverses Type 1 diabetes in groundbreaking experiment
An experimental drug is bringing science one step closer to curing Type 1 diabetes. Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine are reporting that an experimental monoclonal antibody drug prevents and reverses the condition in mice. In some cases, it even extended the animals’ lifespans.
The drug is called mAb43 and is quite unique, according to the research team. If you have Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition, your pancreas makes little to no insulin. This drug works by directly targeting insulin-making beta cells in the pancreas and shielding them from attack by the body’s wayward immune cells.
Such a level of specificity might allow for long-term use in humans with few side-effects, according to the study published in Diabetes. Monoclonal antibodies are made by cloning an animal cell line.
“mAb43 in combination with insulin therapy may have the potential to gradually reduce insulin use while beta cells regenerate, ultimately eliminating the need to use insulin supplementation for glycemic control,” says postdoctoral fellow Devi Kasinathan.
“In an ongoing effort, we aim to develop a humanized version of the antibody and conduct clinical trials to test its ability to prevent Type 1 diabetes, and to learn whether it has any off-target side effects,” concludes researcher Zheng Guo.
Diabetes journal: Cell-Surface ZnT8 Antibody Prevents and Reverses Autoimmune Diabetes in Mice
As a child, I wondered what it would be like to live in the future, and realized I was going to find out.
This discovery was also featured in this morning’s Good News Roundup. Thanks, MCUBernieFan.
GoodGoodGood: Experimental Type 1 Diabetes Drug Shields Pancreas Cells from the Usual Crippling Immune System Attack
Scientists at Johns Hopkins say that an experimental antibody drug appears to prevent and reverse the onset of type 1 diabetes in mice—and often lengthen their lives.
The drug called mAb43 is unique, according to the researchers, because it targets insulin-making beta cells in the pancreas directly and is designed to shield those cells from attacks by the body’s own immune system cells.
The drug’s specificity for such cells may enable long-term use in humans with few side effects, say the researchers. Such monoclonal antibodies are made by cloning, or making identical replicas of, an animal or human cell line.
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Dax Fu, Ph.D., an associate professor of physiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and leader of the research team, says mAb43 binds to a small protein on the surface of beta cells, which dwell in clusters called islets. The drug was designed to provide a kind of shield or cloak to hide beta cells from immune system cells that attack them as “invaders.”
The researchers used a mouse version of the monoclonal antibody, and will need to develop a humanized version for studies in people.
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Today, researchers from the University of Minnesota published evidence that the common diabetes drug metformin decreases the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the body and helps reduce the risk of rebound symptoms if given early in the course of non-severe illness.
The study, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases, suggests metformin may also help prevent long COVID.
The mean SARS-CoV-2 viral load was reduced 3.6-fold with metformin relative to placebo by day 10, the authors found, and those who received metformin were less likely to have a detectable viral load than placebo at days 5 or 10 (odds ratio [OR], 0.72; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.55 to 0.94).
Metformin reduced the odds of hospitalization or death through 28 days by 58%; emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and death through 14 days by 42%; and long COVID through 10 months by 42%.
New method monitors pediatric diabetes patients' health with breath sampling
A special bag is all that is needed to sample the air exhaled by hospitalized children. Scientists have been able to use this new, non-invasive method to monitor young diabetes patients.
The principle behind their test is the same as that used to train dogs to detect certain illnesses. "The carbon dioxide we exhale also contains lots of other things that are present in our blood", the researcher explains. This means we can find traces both of medicines that have been administered and of metabolites - molecules that provide an indication of the activity in our bodies.
the team has developed special bags capable of collecting up to 1.2 liters of exhaled air, patients can simply stay in bed. The bags, which look like ordinary plastic bags, are then taken straight to a laboratory and connected to a mass spectrometer for chemical analysis. The air can be injected straight into the spectrometer from the bags and without any prior preparation, less than a quarter of an hour after being collected. Only routine blood tests can be turned around in such a short time.
A new study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics identified a link between eating avocados and reduced diabetes risk in some Mexican adults.
Brown seaweed consumption could help manage and prevent type 2 diabetes, study shows
Seaweed supplementation could be 'promising strategy' for blood glucose management, researchers say. Brown seaweeds and algae, including Ecklonia cava, Laminaria digitata [oarweed], Undaria pinnatifida [wakame/kelp], Ascophyllum nodosum [knotted wrack] and Fucus vesiculosus [bladder wrack], were found to be most effective.
"Future research should address these gaps, including the comparative effects of brown, red and green algae, to provide a more comprehensive understanding of their potential in diabetes management," Whittington said.
No word in this study on red algae such as nori/gim/laver.
Study uncovers mechanism linking diet, diabetes, and cancer risk
Using mouse models, human tissue, and in vitro-produced human breast organoids, researchers from Singapore and the UK discovered that disruptions in glucose metabolism may promote the growth of cancer by momentarily blocking the BRCA2 gene, which guards against tumours.