If successful, the stem-cell based therapy cure can provide a functional therapeutic for type 1 diabetes and become an important treatment for the large number of insulin-requiring patients.
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Scientists in the United States have used stem cells to create a treatment which could potentially cure type one diabetes.
In this therapy, researchers implant the small capsule underneath the skin of the patients that release insulin-producing cells.
ViaCyte has begun human testing of its approach, turning stem cells into pancreatic cells and inserting them with a company-built encapsulation device, looking to spur a reliable supply of insulin that can functionally cure the disease. The capsule protects the cells from the immune system, which otherwise would attack them as invaders. In case it works in patients with the same efficiency it has worked in animals, it would come up as a cure, brining to an end the need for regular insulin injections and blood sugar testing. “The recent clinical data, while preliminary, are encouraging and move us closer to our goal of a world without Type 1 diabetes”. Meanwhile, the number with Type 2 diabetes, whose bodies make some insulin but don’t use it efficiently, is increasing exponentially due to the global epidemic of obesity and sedentary lifestyles. But according to ViaCyte and others, this treatment is the first tested in patients.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it was noted that ViaCyte remains independent and no commercialisation rights to future products were conveyed as a result of this transaction.
No word yet on if or when further testing will be conducted.
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