{"id":71326,"date":"2022-02-07T04:00:07","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T08:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=71326"},"modified":"2022-02-09T09:45:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T13:45:42","slug":"endocrinologist-advances-research-seeking-cure-for-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/02_07_2022\/endocrinologist-advances-research-seeking-cure-for-diabetes","title":{"rendered":"Endocrinologist Advances Research Seeking Cure for Type I Diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Promising research from The University of Toledo suggests it might be possible to cure Type I diabetes by reprogramming a patient\u2019s own immune cells to heal the pancreas and restore the body\u2019s ability to make insulin.<\/p>\n

The project, led by Dr. Juan Jaume, could revolutionize management of a disease affecting an estimated 1.6 million Americans.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Juan Jaume’s promising research could revolutionize management of a disease affecting an estimated 1.6 million Americans.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis could change Type I diabetes from a lifelong condition requiring careful monitoring and daily insulin to one that\u2019s curable, possibly even with a single immune-cell infusion,\u201d said Jaume, an endocrinologist, professor of medicine and director of UToledo\u2019s Center for Diabetes and Endocrine Research.<\/p>\n

Jaume\u2019s approach centers on an innovative process known as CAR T cell immune therapy.<\/p>\n

Immune cells are collected from a patient\u2019s blood and then modified in the lab so they zero in on a specific target. After given time to multiply, they are then reintroduced to the patient via an infusion.<\/p>\n

CAR T cells are already being used with success in the treatment of some cancers, including leukemia and lymphoma. However, Jaume\u2019s regulatory CAR T cells are meant to stop a target-specific immune response \u2014 not supercharge one.<\/p>\n

Unlike the much more common Type II diabetes, which typically develops later in life and is characterized by the body\u2019s inability to effectively use insulin, in Type I diabetes the pancreas is unable to produce insulin.<\/p>\n

\u201cType I diabetes is an autoimmune disease. The immune system is attacking the pancreas and preventing it from making insulin,\u201d Jaume said. \u201cWe are taking these regulatory immune cells and giving them a GPS address to the pancreas\u2019s insulin-producing islets, where they cool down the immune response and allow the insulin-producing target cells to repopulate. If we can direct a regulatory immune cell to exactly where we want and heal instead of kill, then we could have a cure for the disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, his lab completed a small-scale study that found their regulatory CAR T cell therapy was able to completely reverse the disease in mice that Jaume and his collaborators previously developed to mimic the full scope of human Type I diabetes.<\/p>\n

While still under review by an academic journal, Jaume\u2019s findings combined with a patent application for the therapy were enough to draw the attention of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, a global philanthropic organization that invests heavily in early-stage Type I diabetes research.<\/p>\n

In December, Helmsley awarded Jaume a grant to replicate his earlier 30-day animal study as a six-month preclinical trial to not only show the effectiveness of the treatment but gather additional safety data. At the same time, Jaume\u2019s group will be studying the therapy\u2019s effect on human cell settings in the laboratory.<\/p>\n

Researchers hope the additional data can move the therapy closer to early-stage human trials.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to take some time, of course, but I\u2019m really confident that we are on the right track,\u201d Jaume said. \u201cWithin 20 days, our mice started making insulin again. We don\u2019t know what the response is going to be in humans, but that\u2019s the goal \u2014 we want to make this therapy available to humans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

The project, led by Dr. Juan Jaume, could revolutionize the management of a disease affecting an estimated 1.6 million Americans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":71328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,38,1,3,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71326"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71350,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71326\/revisions\/71350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}