A group of researchers led by Professor Andrés García of the Georgia Institute of Technology used a new technique composed of synthetic hydrogel particles called microgels to transplant insulin-producing cells without risk of rejection so that they could perform their function such as regulating blood glucose levels and fighting the diabetes in total safety.
For this to be possible, microgels feature a powerful immunomodulating protein called SA-FasL to modulate the body’s immune response. This is an important achievement because to date, although islet cell transplants are a promising treatment capable of curing difficult-to-treat type 1 diabetes as the cells, taken from a pancreas donor, provide patients with a source of sustainable and tightly controlled insulin.
We must face the age-old problem of the patient’s immune system that can reject the influx of new donor cells: in fact, the patient’s protective T lymphocytes naturally want to repel foreign invaders.
The results of the Research have been published in the scientific journal Science Advances.
Microgels in islet cell transplants: some research details
“Immunosuppression is a significant problem for patients, but in our previous work we have shown that this biomaterial, this microgel, is a potent immunomodulating molecule and can induce permanent acceptance of new cells.“, he has declared García, Petit Chair in Bioengineering and Regents Professor at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and executive director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.
“But that study was done in mice, and a mouse’s immune system is very different from that of a human“, Added García. “And in the progression to clinical use, it is really necessary to test this strategy in a large animal model. “
Professor García and his team of researchers from the University of Missouri and Massachusetts General Hospital explained that their research, funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, highlighted how islet cell transplantation with SA-FasL microgel reversed symptoms of diabetes by overcoming the immune response in non-human primates. Scientists have not used immunosuppressants, which can have dangerous side effects.
Microgels essentially teach the immune system to accept the graft, disrupting the body’s inclination to reject the transplant and bypassing the need for continued immunosuppression.
“Those immunosuppressive regimens are toxic to the patient, so one of the main goals in the field has been to develop approaches that allow for this graft to be inserted and to function without chronic immunosuppression. “García said.
Since the biomaterial can be created in the laboratory and shipped anywhere, the new therapeutic is essentially ready to use. And now that Garcia and his team have shown the strategy works in non-human primates, his collaborators are hopeful that patients with type 1 diabetes could have a powerful new treatment option.
![RAGE229, microgel](https://tech.icrewplay.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Evotec-expands-its-Sanofi-alliance-with-new-330m-diabetes-drug-development-deal.jpg)
García is co-founder of the technology licensing company, iTolerance, which is already considering planning for clinical trials in humans, together with the US Food and Drug Administration.
“We’re pretty excited – this is very exciting and these are promising results for people battling type 1 diabetes.“, Concluded García, corresponding author and part of a research team of 20 scholars:”This work would not have been possible without this scientific team approach ”.
Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes, is a chronic disease in which the pancreas fails to produce the insulin needed for survival. For individuals diagnosed with diabetes, access to affordable treatment, including insulin, is critical to their survival.
There is a globally agreed goal to stop the rise of diabetes and obesity by 2025. Today 415 million people around the world are living with diabetes. If this continues at this rate, more than half a billion will have diabetes by 2040.
Of the 422 million diabetes cases worldwide, the majority live in low- and middle-income countries, and 1.5 million deaths are directly attributed to diabetes each year. Both the number of cases and the prevalence of diabetes have undergone a not negligible increase in recent decades.
For this reason, being followed by trained medical and paramedical personnel, constantly monitoring blood sugar, following a healthy diet cannot be a privilege, but a right. Millions of people around the world not only do not have access to adequate care, they cannot afford a healthy food shopping either.
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