They picked livers: of course, they should have picked pancreases!
It is a really interesting paper because it appears to be a new approach to engineering organs from stem cells. First, they studied what genes would likely influence stem cells into developing as liver cells. Then they used CRISPRa to modify the stem cells so that the right genes would be in place. Then they grew the cells in vitro (Petri dish). They obtained mini livers (organelles).
When they injected the resulting mini livers into mice with liver disease, they saw an increase in mouse lifespan.
This is not so far from creating and injecting mini pancreases! Of course, they’d have to do it repeatedly, because we’ll keep on destroying them.
Yes, those darn mice keep getting cured. Lucky mice. And of course you point out the big problem with humans, in order to “cure” Type 1’s they are going to need to either hide the cells from the body’s immune system or modify the immune system of the Type 1 to not destroy the new cells. Difficult problem, surefire Nobel if you come up with the cure.
i have been watching this, too! and although there’s a ways yet to go, i mean progress is progress, right?! any step toward a cure or better treatment is a step toward a better future, so i will take it. plus the underlying science is very cool too
There has been recent progress on these techniques that is worth noting. This study took human islet cells and engineered them using CRISPR to disrupt major histocompatibility complex function. In essence, this makes them able to evade detection by the immune system (“hypoimmune”). The islet cells were transplanted intramuscularly into a macaque monkey with chemically induced diabetes. Prior to treatment, the monkey had no C-peptide production and was insulin dependent. One week post-treatment its C-peptide levels and blood glucose measurements were normal. This state was maintained for 6 months with no signs of rejection and no immunosuppression.
All the usual caveats apply: this is an N=1 study, the long term effectiveness isn’t proven (it’s possible the cells will fail or the immune system will suss them out), and it may be hard to scale production. However it’s among the most promising techniques I’ve seen in development. The other is the use of “inverse vaccines” to halt autoimmune disease progress, but this only works if you still have residual beta cells to take over. The two may make complementary therapies, though.
