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People with type 1 diabetes must strictly adhere to a prescribed insulin regimen every day, receiving hormone injections through syringes, insulin pumps, or other devices
Pancreatic islets control the production of insulin when blood sugar levels change, and in people with type 1 diabetes, the body's immune system attacks and destroys these insulin-producing cells
Now, a team of researchers at Northwestern University has discovered a technique that could make immune regulation more effective
The paper was published today (January 17) in the journal Nature Nanotechnology
specified body attack
Ameer has been working to improve the outcomes of islet transplantation by providing an engineered environment for islets to optimize their survival and function using biomaterials
"This is an opportunity to work with Evan Scott, a leader in immune engineering, and participate in a convergent research collaboration led by NSF graduate researcher Jacqueline Burr," Emmel said.
Rapamycin is widely studied and commonly used to suppress immune responses during other types of therapy and transplantation, and is known for its broad effects on many cell types throughout the body
Scott, who is also a member of CARE, said he wanted to know how to enhance the efficacy of a drug by putting it into a nanoparticle and "controlling where it sits in the body.
"During treatment, to avoid the broad effects of rapamycin, the drug is usually given in low doses and delivered through a specific route of administration, primarily orally," Scott said
After transplantation, immune cells called T cells reject the newly introduced foreign cells and tissues
Using the nanoparticles also allowed the team to administer rapamycin by subcutaneous injection, which they found uses a different metabolic pathway to avoid the massive drug loss that occurs in the liver after oral administration
"We wondered, could rapamycin be redesigned to avoid nonspecific suppression of T cells and instead stimulate tolerance pathways by delivering the drug to different types of immune cells?" Scott said
A 'pipe dream' in diabetes research comes true
The team tested this hypothesis in mice, introducing diabetes into the population and then treating it with islet transplantation and rapamycin (delivered through a standard Rapamune® oral regimen and its nanocarrier formulation)
The team observed minimal side effects in the mice and found that diabetes was eradicated in the 100-day trial; but the treatment should last the entire lifespan of the transplant
The concept of enhancing and controlling drug side effects through nano-delivery is not a new one, Scott said
The team's findings could have far-reaching implications
Jacqueline Burke, the study's lead author and a National Science Foundation graduate researcher, worked at CARE with Scott and Amir
.
She said she couldn't believe her reading when she saw the mice's blood sugar plummet from highly diabetic levels to even numbers
.
She double-checked to make sure it wasn't an accident, but she saw the number go on for months
.
For Burke, who is pursuing a Ph.
D.
in biomedical engineering, the research touches on more personal issues
.
Burke is one such person, for whom taking pictures every day is a well-known part of her life
.
She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of nine, and for a long time she knew she wanted to contribute in the field
.
"In my past projects, I've worked on wound healing for diabetic foot ulcers, a complication of type 1 diabetes," Burke said
.
"As a 26-year-old, I never really wanted to achieve this, so I felt a better strategy would be to focus on how diabetes is now treated in a more concise way, mimicking the pancreas of a non-diabetic person.
natural conditions
.
"
The entire Northwestern team has been experimenting and publishing research on islet transplantation for three years, and both Burke and Scott say their just-published research could be split into two or three papers
.
However, the paper they have now published argues that this is a breakthrough that could have major implications for future diabetes research
.
Scott has begun patenting the method and is working with industry partners to eventually move it into clinical trials
.
Commercializing his research would solve problems with new technologies, such as Vertex's stem cell islets for diabetes treatment
.
article title
Subcutaneous nanotherapy repurposes the immunosuppressive mechanism of rapamycin to enhance allogeneic islet graft viability