(NewsNation) — Researchers in Australia have demonstrated a new way cells that produce insulin could be regenerated in the pancreas, a potentially promising finding for those with Type 1 diabetes.
Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute researchers wrote in the scientific journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy this month that newly made insulin cells can respond to glucose and produce more insulin in as little as 48 hours after being stimulated by GSK126 and tazemetostat.
GSK126 and tazemetostat are small-molecule inhibitors approved by the FDA and currently used for rare cancers.
Scientists tested their method using pancreatic cells from a child, an adult with Type 1 diabetes and a non-diabetic person. According to ScienceAlert, the researchers were able to get their cells to mimic the function of β-cells that are usually ineffective or missing in people with Type 1 diabetes using GSK126 and tazemetostat. This way, the insulin-producing cells, usually destroyed in people with Type 1 diabetes, are regenerated.
Current pharmaceutical options fall short of this, as they help control blood glucose levels but do not stop the insulin cells from being destroyed.
“We consider this regenerative approach an important advance towards clinical development,” researcher Sam El-Osta said in a statement.
Now, Dr. Keith Al-Hasani of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation says the next step is to test the “novel regenerative approach” in a preclinical model, with the aim of developing the inhibitors as drugs.