Another step closer to curing type 1 diabetes in humans! A study on 5 diabetic dogs showed that after been given 2 extra genes, they no longer needed insulin injections. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which insulin secreting cells are destroyed. The way that the gene therapy works is that two genes are injected into the dogs muscle by a harmless virus to replace the damaged pancreatic beta cells. One of the genes produces the insulin and the other determines how much glucose should be absorbed into the muscles. Dogs that only received one of the genes remained diabetic so both are needed for the treatment to work. More evidence is needed to be tested in humans.
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