Sugar molecule researchers used by cancer cells on their surfaces to hide from the immune system, and the researchers found that the same molecule may help in treating type 1 diabetes.
The study was conducted by Mayo Clinic researchers in the United States, and its results were published in the Journal of Clinical Investiation on August 1, and the Yurrick Alert website was written.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, as the immune system attacks the Beta -Benkrolic Beta cells that produce insulin by mistake.
The disease is caused by genetic factors and other factors, and the number of people with it is estimated at 1.3 million people in the United States.
Cancer cells use a variety of ways to evade the immune response, including wrapping themselves with a sugar molecule known as lyic acid.
The researchers in a laboratory mice with type 1 diabetes found the possibility of providing beta cells with the same sugar molecule, which enables the immune system to tolerate these cells.
“Our results show the possibility of beta cells engineering so that she does not stimulate an immune response,” says Immunology researcher, Dr. Virginia Shapiro, a researcher participating in the study.
A few years ago, Dr. Shapiro team proved that Enzyme is known as the CT8 S6 (ST8SIA6), which increases the acid acid on the surface of the cancer cells, which helps her to appear as if it is not strange bodies targeted by the immune system.
“This enzyme is covering the cancer cells with a sugar layer, and it can help protect the abnormal cell from the natural immune response. We asked whether the enzyme itself is also able to protect the natural cell from the abnormal immunological response.”
The team for the first time proved the authenticity of this concept in an artificial inductive model of diabetes.
Cell engineering
The team studied laboratory mice known as the automatic development of self -immune diabetes (type 1), which is largely close to the process that occurs in patients.
The researchers engineered beta cells in the models to produce the CT8 SA6 6.
The team found that engineering cells were 90% effective in preventing the development of type 1 diabetes. Beta cells, which are usually maintained by the immune system in type 1 diabetes.
It is important that researchers also found that the immune response to engineering cells appears to be highly specialized, according to the medical and doctoral student in Mayo Clinic, Justin Choi, the co -author of the study.
“Although beta cells survive, the immune system remained intact,” says Choi.
The researchers were able to monitor active and interactive cells, as well as evidence of an autonomous response against another pathological process.
There is no healing treatment for type 1 diabetes, and the treatment includes the use of artificial insulin to regulate blood sugar to undergo the transplantation of the cells of the pancreatic islands, which include essential beta cells.
Dr. Shapiro aims to explore the use of genetically modified beta cells in the cells of the pancreatic islands that can be implanted with the aim of ultimately improving patients for patients because the planting process includes inhibiting the immunity of the entire immune system.
“The goal is to provide implantable cells without the need to inhibit immunity,” says Dr. Shapiro.