Potential target for Type 1 diabetes treatment

The study, by researchers, lead to a potential treatment option for insulin-dependent diabetes which is diagnosed in seven Australian children every day resulting in a lifetime testing of blood glucose and daily insulin injections, to replace the insulin no longer produced by a damaged pancreas. The findings are now published in theNature journal, Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.

The advances in the genetics of diabetes have brought a "greater understanding and along with it a resurgence of interest in the development of potential therapies," said researchers.

Patients rely on daily insulin injections to replace what would have been produced by the pancreas. Currently, the only other effective therapy requires pancreatic islet transplantation and while this has improved health outcomes for individuals with diabetes, transplantation relies on organ donors, so it has limited widespread use, ended researchers.

Reference: Nature journal, Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy titled: Inhibition of pancreatic EZH2 restores progenitor insulin in T1D donor;DOI: 10.1038/s41392-022-01034-7.