New milestone in diabetes research: 700% increase in insulin-producing cells achieved in mice

Harmine and GLP1 receptor agonists were used to treat lab mice after a limited number of human beta cells were implanted into them by researchers.

Despite significant strides in the world of medical science in the past few decades, diabetes has remained one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Largely, there is no cure of the disease as of today.

However, data from a recently published research by the Science Translational Medicine has shown that a new novel drug therapy has the potential to significantly increase insulin-producing cells - by as much as 700 per cent - in just 3 months, reports The Indian Express.

The results were found after experiments were conducted upon mice having both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Harmine and GLP1 receptor agonists were used to treat the lab mice after a limited number of human beta cells were implanted into them by the researchers.

Millions of diabetics now have a new ray of hope for a possible cure, thanks to this breakthrough discovery.

Beta cells in a functiong pancreas generate insulin, which, in turn, helps in controlling our blood sugar levels. In diabetic individuals, these cells are either damaged or inefficient, which result in inadequate insulin production.

The study's corresponding author, Dr. Adolfo Garcia-Ocana, said that this is the first instance of a drug therapy being demonstrated to increase human beta cell counts in vivo.

He emphasised that there is a lot of scope for future regenerative medicines based on this research, which might potentially treat millions of people with diabetes.

“We’ve made a groundbreaking discovery, successfully developing a drug treatment that boosts adult human beta cell numbers in the body. This breakthrough offers new hope for regenerative therapies that could potentially treat the millions of people worldwide living with diabetes,” he was quoted as saying.