This type 1 diabetes molecule can stop, by deceiving the immune system

Type 1 diabetes is the condition of chronic autoimmune immunity in which the immune system wrongly attacks the Beta Beta cells that produce insulin. This disease occurs due to genetic factors and other factors and affects an estimated 1.3 million people in the United States

In their studies, Mayo Clinic researchers took a mechanism for cancer and turned it on top. Cancer cells use a variety of ways to evade the immune response, including painting themselves in the sugar molecule known as stalic acid. The researchers in the pre -clinical model of type 1 diabetes found that it is possible to wear beta cells with the same sugar molecule, allowing the immune system to tolerate cells.

“The results we have found shows that it is possible to engineer the beta cells that do not provoke the immune response,” says Virginia Shapiro, the head of the study, published in the Clinical Investigation Magazine.

A few years ago, Dr. Shapiro’s team showed that the enzyme, known as St8sia6, which increases the acid acid on the surface of cancer cells helps the emergence of cancer cells as if they are not foreign entities to be targeted by the immune system.

“The expression of this enzyme in the first place” sugar coats cells “can help protect an abnormal cell from a natural immune response. We asked whether the enzyme itself may also protect a natural cell from an abnormal immune response.” The team created for the first time evidence of the concept in a model of artificial diabetes.

In the current study, the team looked at pre -clinical models known as the automatic development of self -immunosural diabetes (type 1), closely close to the process that occurs in patients. The researchers designed the beta cells in the models to produce the ST8Sia6 enzyme.

In pre -clinical models, the team found that engineering cells were 90 % effective in preventing the development of type 1 diabetes. Beta cells, which are usually destroyed by the immune system in type 1 diabetes.

More importantly, researchers also found that the immune response to engineering cells seem very specific, says MD-PH.D. Student Justin Choi, the first publishing author. Choi was a doctoral study consisting of his dual degree at the Mayo Clinic College of Biomedic Sciences and the Mayo Clinic Alix Medicine.

“Although beta cells have survived, the immune system remained intact,” says Choi. The researchers were able to see the B and T cells active and evidence of an autoimmune response against another disease. ))

There is currently no treatment for type 1 diabetes, and treatment includes the use of artificial insulin to regulate blood sugar, or for some people, they are undergoing a process of pancreatic island cells, which include beta cells that affect the need. Since the transplant includes the inventory of the entire immune system, Dr. Shapiro aims to explore the use of beta -engineered cells in anable island cells with the aim of improving treatment in the end for patients.

“The goal will be to provide cultivated cells without the need to suppress immunity,” says Dr. Shapiro. “Although we are still in the early stages, this study may be one step towards improving care.”

The research was funded by grants from the National Health Institutes.