Recently,
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Massimo Trucco, MD (pictured), the Hillman professor of pediatric immunology and head of the Division of Immunogenetics within the Department of Pediatrics, director of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC Histocompatibility Center, and founder and director of the Pediatric Research Section of the University of Pittsburgh Diabetes Institute, and his colleagues were issued a patent entitled “Microsphere-Based Composition for Preventing and/or Reversing New-Onset Autoimmune Diabetes.” The patent provides a method that includes using an antisense approach to reverse and/or delay an autoimmune diabetes condition in vivo. The oligonucleotides are targeted to bind to primary transcripts CD40, CD80, CD86, and their combinations.
Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disorder where there is a progressive inflammation of the pancreas, and specifically, the endocrine insulin-producing beta cells. Before onset, the inflammation first renders the endocrine beta cells dysfunctional. A single injection of a microsphere formulation considerably delays disease onset in the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse model of human autoimmune (type 1) diabetes. Although not wishing to be bound by any particular theory, it is believed the microspheres are taken up by resident and migrating dendritic cells at the site of injection and then move into the proximal lymph nodes before onset of the disease. It is also believed that a decreased proliferation of T-cells targeted to putative beta cell antigens in vitro occurs in treated recipients. An increase may occur in the prevalence of CD4+ CD25+ putative T regulatory cells in immunodeficient NOD-scid mice reconstituted with syngeneic T-cells and dendritic cells and then administered the microspheres. Thus, a microsphere-based therapeutic composition can modulate dendritic cell activity and mobilize regulatory networks for prophylaxis.
It would be desirable to have a treatment that would prevent the onset of diabetes. It would also be desirable to have a therapeutic composition that would arrest or reverse the disease after clinical onset when a substantial number of beta cells have been destroyed. Repeated administration into new-onset diabetic mice normalizes hyperglycemia and reverses the disease. Reversal typically indicates having the individual, such as a human or other mammal, exhibit near normalization of blood glucose levels. Without being bound by any particular theory, it is believed that during "reversal," disease-induced T-cell inflammation and cell death are resisted.
Illustration: McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Read more…
Contact Center Solutions Industry News (09/27/11)
Spotlight Series: Dr. Massimo Trucco
Part 1 of 4: A Leader in Immunogenetics
Part 2 of 4: A Career Dedicated to Diabetes Research
Part 3 of 4: Published Milestones in Diabetes Research
Part 4 of 4: Type 1 Diabetes Vaccine in Clinical Trial
Bio: Dr. Massimo Trucco