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Diabetes cell therapies take evasive action

Nature Biotechnology volume 40, pages 291–295 (2022)Cite this article

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 22 April 2022

This article has been updated

Protective encapsulating devices and gene-editing technologies could obviate the need for antirejection drugs in stem-cell-derived therapies for diabetes.

Capping a 20-year quest to create a replacement for insulin-producing cells, two companies now have evidence that pancreatic cells derived from pluripotent stem cells can show efficacy in humans. ViaCyte-affiliated scientists published a pair of papers late last year showing that the firm’s encapsulated pancreatic progenitor cell therapy PEC-01 helps individuals with diabetes control blood sugar levels and reduce the need for insulin injections. And, in unpublished work, Vertex has said that the first recipient of its rival pancreatic cell product, VX-880, saw robust improvements in multiple measures of sugar metabolism. Most dramatically, the man’s daily exogenous insulin intake dropped by over 90%.

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Fig. 1: Stem cell approaches for T1D.
Fig. 2: Immunostaining of an islet-like cluster.

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  1. Somerville, MA, USA

    Elie Dolgin

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  1. Elie Dolgin
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Dolgin, E. Diabetes cell therapies take evasive action. Nat Biotechnol 40, 291–295 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01246-w

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