Lead Inventors:
Kevan Herold,
Virginia Papaiouannou
Diabetics with Pancreas Transplant Treatment require Long-Term Immunosuppressive Drugs to Protect Tissue
Problem or Unmet Need:
There is no practical cure to date for type 1 diabetes. Since type 1 diabetes is due to failure of producing insulin, studies have led to cue by replacing the pancreas or only the beta cells. There is no cure for type 2 diabetes to date, neither, which is due to diminished response of the body to insulin, and also combined with relative insulin deficiency.
Type 1 diabetics who have received pancreas transplant (or a kidney-pancreas transplant) successfully may now be considered ""cured"". However, patients generally remain on long-term immunosuppressive drugs and there is a possibility of immune response against the transplanted organ.
Transplants of exogenous beta cells have been performed experimentally in both mice and humans; and experiments have shown that the insulin producing beta cells are responsive to glucose and correct diabetes when they are transplanted into diabetic mice. However, treatment for patients involves isolating insulin producing cells from deceased organ donors, which is too limited for practical in regular clinical practice. Moreover, long-term immunosuppressive drugs will be needed to protect the transplanted tissue.
Diabetes, Type 1 and Type 2, Treatments through Growing Insulin Producing Beta Cells from Pancreatic Precursor Cells
Details of the Invention:
The technology presents a new method to grow insulin producing beta cells from pancreatic precursor cells. Factors that can direct the differentiation of non-insulin-producing precursor cells into insulin producing beta cells were found. The precursor cell can be a pancreatic precursor cell derived from pancreatic anlagen. The method comprises co-culture of a non-insulin-producing precursor cell with a mature pancreatic islet cell in a cell culture.
Applications:
• Treatment of Type 1 diabetes due to the body's failure to produce insulin
• Treatment of Type 2 diabetes due to the body's diminished response to insulin
• The factors responsible for differentiation can be used to grow beta cells
Advantages:
• No need to rely on insulin producing cells isolated from the limited donors
• Possibility of selecting the donor of the induced cells and thereby matching the recipient
• The induced cells can be further manipulated to reduce immune rejection
• The cells to be implanted can be cultured and expanded to obtain necessary density for transplantation
• Transplant procedure is very similar to the pancreatic islets implantation protocol
• Much shorter scheme to regenerate insulin producing cells, compared to therapy based on stem cells
Opportunities:
• Sponsored research funding of continued work on reversing diabetes with pancreatic anlagen transplantation, identification of the differentiation factors and expanding studies into human cells
• Licensing
Patent Status: Patent Pending (
WO/2008/063934)
Licensing Status: Available for Licensing and Sponsored Research Support