Professor Ronald Evans, first author and former Staff Scientist Eiji Yoshihara, and colleagues have made a major advance in the pursuit of a safe and effective treatment for type 1 diabetes. Using stem-cell technology, they generated the first human insulin-producing pancreatic cell clusters able to evade the immune system. These “immune shielded” cell clusters controlled blood glucose without immunosuppressive drugs in mice, once transplanted in the body.
Metabolism
Genes & Development
09/2020
Common diabetes drug reverses inflammation in the liver
The diabetes drug metformin has been prescribed to hundreds of millions of people worldwide as the frontline treatment for type 2 diabetes. Now, Professor Reuben Shaw, first author Jeanine Van Nostrand and colleagues have shown the importance of specific enzymes in the body for metformin’s function. In addition, the new work showed that the same proteins, regulated by metformin, controlled aspects of inflammation in mice, something the drug has not typically been prescribed for. Apart from clarifying how metformin works, the research has relevance for many other inflammatory diseases.
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