Abstract
A cure for diabetes has long been sought using several different approaches, including islet transplantation, regeneration of β cells and insulin gene therapy1. However, permanent remission of type 1 diabetes has not yet been satisfactorily achieved. The development of type 1 diabetes results from the almost total destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic β cells by autoimmune responses specific to β cells2,3,4,5,6. Standard insulin therapy may not maintain blood glucose concentrations within the relatively narrow range that occurs in the presence of normal pancreatic β cells7. We used a recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) that expresses a single-chain insulin analogue (SIA), which possesses biologically active insulin activity without enzymatic conversion, under the control of hepatocyte-specific L-type pyruvate kinase (LPK) promoter, which regulates SIA expression in response to blood glucose levels. Here we show that SIA produced from the gene construct rAAV-LPK-SIA caused remission of diabetes in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats and autoimmune diabetic mice for a prolonged time without any apparent side effects. This new SIA gene therapy may have potential therapeutic value for the cure of autoimmune diabetes in humans.
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Acknowledgements
We thank R. J. Samulski for providing psub201 and pXX2, A. L. Kyle and K. Clarke for editorial assistance and B. Pinder for artwork. We also thank H. S. Jun for a critical review of the manuscript. J. W. Y. is a Heritage Medical Scientist awardee of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. This work was supported in part by Brain Korea 21 Project.
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Lee, H., Kim, SJ., Kim, KS. et al. Remission in models of type 1 diabetes by gene therapy using a single-chain insulin analogue. Nature 408, 483–488 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35044106
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35044106
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