insulin

Buck Institute to tackle aging research with stem cell funds

John Carroll — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:45:23 -0400

The Buck Institute for Age Research was the only non-academic group to receive California stem cell grants for new research facilities this year. After qualifying for $20.5 million in state funds, the institute now plans to build a 65,000-square-foot research center on its campus in Novato, CA. When the $41 million facility opens, the institute plans to expand its work in the field of aging and chronic diseases as researchers explore ways to expand the average life span beyond its current limits.

"We think the link between aging and getting diseases has really been under-appreciated," James Kovach, the Buck Institute's president and COO, told BioRegion News. "It's really looking at healthy populations earlier, and then understanding the aging process so that you can delay it. By delaying the aging process, we believe you'll delay the onset of virtually every chronic disease in parallel. We refer to it as the longevity dividend [that results] if you can help people avoid chronic diseases, particularly in the 60s and 70s, so that essentially people live a healthy life--the clinical reference to that is compressing morbidity."

- check out the release on the funding
- read the Q&A from BioRegion News

Developers, geneticists brainstorm diabetes therapies

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:59:59 -0400

What do you get when you mix 20 drug developers active in the diabetes field with a room full of geneticists? Hopefully, a new generation of therapies that pinpoint subsets of the disease, each with its own unique genetic thumbprint.

There are 21 million Americans alone who suffer from type 1 or type 2 diabetes. But any clinician will tell you that cases are often remarkably dissimilar. And new research indicates that a person's genetic profile has a lot to do with their disease. MODY, for example, involves six different genetic subtypes that account for two percent of all cases. So far 16 genes have been linked to type 2 and 14 genes have been associated with type 1. Genetics expert Francis Collins like to highlight one gene that is responsible for getting zinc to insulin-producing cells--a prime drug target in diabetes.

Merck's Eric Shadt, meanwhile, says he believes several genes work together as a kind of master switch. One set of obesity genes may work in tandem, offering a red flag in the obese to identify likely diabetics.

- check out the AP report

Related Articles:
Analyst sees tighter diabetes drugs standards. Report
Diabetes market in flux as FDA mandates new warnings. Report
Enzyme discovery offers new direction in diabetes. Report

Press Release: Reducing Insulin Signaling in the Brain Can Prolong Lifespan

Maureen Martino — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:45:38 -0400

One route to a long and healthy life may be establishing the right balance in insulin signaling between the brain and the rest of the body, according to new research from Children’s Hospital Boston. The study, published in the July 20 issue of Science, not only reinforces the value of exercising and eating in moderation, but also helps explain a paradox in longevity research.

Insulin sends a vital signal throughout the body telling cells to use sugar from the blood. But when cells become less sensitive to insulin, which often happens as we age and gain weight, the body must make more insulin to keep sugar under control and avoid type 2 diabetes. For a long time, clinicians and scientists thought that “more insulin was a good thing,” says Morris White, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in Children’s Division of Endocrinology, who led the new study. “But the increased insulin also gets into the brain, where it can be detrimental.”

Studies in the worm C. elegans and in fruit flies show that reducing insulin signaling lengthens lifespan. But in humans and rodents, reducing insulin signaling often causes diabetes. The view that insulin could reduce lifespan is difficult to reconcile with decades of clinical practice and scientific investigation to treat diabetes.

White suspected that the key to explaining this paradox—and to maximizing both health and longevity—is to reduce insulin signaling only in the brain. To test this idea, White’s team measured longevity and other characteristics in several groups of mice. In one group, they used a genetic trick to cut in half the amount of Irs2, a protein that carries the insulin signal inside the cell, in every cell of the body. Two other groups of mice were genetically engineered to have half, or nearly all, Irs2 removed only from the brain cells. Another group of normal mice served as controls.

“To our surprise, all of the engineered mice lived longer,” says Akiko Taguchi, PhD, first author of the study. Even more surprising, the mice lacking Irs2 only in the brain lived almost half a year longer than the normal mice – an 18 percent increase in lifespan – despite being overweight and having higher blood insulin levels, changes that usually reduce lifespan. These long-lived mice were more active in old age, retained youthful metabolic cycles (burning sugar by day and fat by night) and retained protective levels of anti-oxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase, which protect against oxidative stress, or “biological rusting,” in the brain and body.

The mice with normal brain Irs2 levels aged less gracefully – they lost the metabolic rhythms of youth, became more sedentary, and had reduced anti-oxidant enzymes after meals, leaving them vulnerable to cellular damage. Such damage correlates with a host of age-related diseases such as atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, notes White.

White believes the study findings suggest a new approach to preventing diseases that shorten lifespan. “The engineered mice live longer because the diseases that kill them – cancer, cardiovascular disease and others – are being postponed by reducing insulin-like signaling in the brain,” he says, “regardless of how much insulin there is in the rest of the body.”

Drugs that regulate Irs2 signaling in the brain (but not elsewhere in the body) are one possible preventive strategy, but no such drug has yet been found. Targeted drugs will be important because Irs2 is needed in other tissues, particularly the pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin.

“The easiest way to keep insulin levels low in the brain,” White says, “is old-fashioned diet and exercise.” Although obesity and sedentary lifestyles tune down the body’s sensitivity to insulin, exercise can bring it back and reduce blood insulin levels. Eating smaller meals keeps insulin low in the bloodstream, ensuring that less reaches the brain. The new drugs designed to fight insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes might have a similar effect.

“This study provides a new explanation of why it’s good to exercise and not eat too much,” says White. “It has less to do with how we look, and more to do with a healthy brain, especially in old age.”

The study also calls into question the long-term effects of insulin therapy for diabetes, White adds. “High insulin should be the short term solution to insulin resistance, because it might damage the brain in the long run,” he says. Better treatments for diabetes and healthy aging, he suggests, should concentrate on sensitizing the body’s cells to low amounts of insulin.

The work was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Yamada Science Foundation.

Children’s Hospital Boston is home to the world’s largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. More than 500 scientists, including eight members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 members of the Institute of Medicine and 10 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Children’s research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Children’s Hospital Boston today is a 347-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Children’s also is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

ALSO NOTED: Stem cells produce insulin; Breakthrough in breast cancer genomics;

Mon, 28 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Stem Cell Research

Using stem cells extracted from umbilical cords, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch teamed with scientists in the UK were able to coax them to produce insulin, offering an approach to curing diabetes. Dr. Randall Urban, who led the study, said that they were on the first rung of the ladder. The news follows a report from last week that Geron had used embryonic stem cells to create new pancreatic cells that could produce insulin. Report

Researchers at Japan's Kobe Center for Developmental Biology report in Nature Biotechnology that they have successfully achieved the efficient mass cultivation of human embryonic stem cells, a key step in the development of new stem cell therapies. Report

Physicians at Austria's Medical University of Innsbruck were able to extract and cultivate adult stem cells that were then injected back into the bodies of incontinent patients. The researchers said the approach was successful in repairing the damaged sphincters of 80 percent of the patients and that the results don't appear to fade over time. Report

Bone marrow stem cells attracted to the site of a cancerous growth frequently take on the outward appearance of the malignant cells around them, University of Florida researchers report in a paper to be published in the August issue of Stem Cells. But whether that enables them to fuel cancer's ability to develop and then spread, as some scientists suspect, is not entirely clear. Release

Cancer Research

There have been several new studies revolving around the genetics of breast cancer, and researchers in one say they have found a possible new gene related to breast cancer. Rap80 is described as a protein that plays an important role in allowing BRCA1 to do its DNA repair work. Report

Scientists have developed a more human-like mouse model of cancer they say will aid the search for cancer-causing genes and improve the predictive value of laboratory drug testing. The study was conducted by a team of researchers including Richard Maser, Ronald A. DePinho, Lynda Chin at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Release

Aspirin therapy's ability to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer appears to depend on the drug's inhibition of the COX-2 enzyme, the action that also underlies aspirin's usefulness for treating pain and inflammation. Report

More Research

Aridis Pharmaceuticals has teamed up with a group of students at Johns Hopkins to develop breath-mint technology to painlessly and easily deliver vaccines to children. The added advantage would be a new technology for vaccines that no longer relies on special storage requirements, making them much easier to deliver in developing countries. Report

A new study published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research has confirmed that appetite-regulating peptides leptin and ghrelin influence alcohol cravings for some alcoholics. Report

New adult brain cells may be essential for the rejuvenation of a mature nervous system, according to a research team at Johns Hopkins. Report

For the first time anywhere, a researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has succeeded in observing in vivo the generation of neurons in the brain of a mammal. Release

People whose blood shows signs of inflammation are more likely to later develop Alzheimer's disease than people with no signs of inflammation, according to a study published in the May 29 issue of Neurology. Report

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that hair follicles in adult mice regenerate by re-awakening genes once active only in developing embryos. Release

Citing financial reasons, the NIH's National Center for Research Resources has permanently banned breeding chimpanzees for biomedical research. Chimps can live 50 years in captivity and can cost up to $500,000 for proper care over their lifetime. Report

MIT researchers have developed ultra-sensitive nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy that can provide researchers with detailed pictures of complex molecules such as proteins. Report

Results from an international multi-center Phase II clinical trial suggest that extracorporeal photopheresis may be effective in treating patients with clinically active (or symptomatic) Crohn's disease who cannot tolerate or are refractory to immunosuppressants and/or anti-TNF agents. Report

Effector proteins are the bad guys that help bacterial pathogens do their job of infecting the host by crippling the body's immune system. In essence, they knock down the front door of resistance and disarm the cell's alarm system. Release

Geron reports breakthrough in stem cell research

Mon, 21 May 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Geron stock got a big boost just days ago when researchers announced that they had coaxed embryonic stem cells into clusters that produced insulin in response to elevated levels of glucose. The work points to a potential cure for Type 1 diabetes, which had investors cheering up its stock by about 10 percent. Some analysts note that the company has been the subject of a considerable amount of press attention, which hasn't hurt its stock price.

"These studies show that the islet-like clusters contain the major cellular components of islets and are sensitive to glucose, the key sugar to which they must respond to be therapeutically beneficial," stated Anish Majumdar, Ph.D., the senior author of the paper. "Our major goal moving forward is to improve the purity, yield and maturational status of these cells to induce normoglycemia in animal models of diabetes."

- here's the report on Geron's work from TheStreet.com

ALSO NOTED: Geron touts clinical trials; Wisconsin start-up gets state funds; new artificial blood developed

Mon, 14 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Stem cell research

Geron CEO Tom Okarma used BIO 2007 as a setting to tout upcoming clinical trials of an embryonic stem cell therapy for spinal cord injuries. "The world's spotlight will be on this trial," he maintains, which some observers see as a possible blessing or a curse. Report

UC Irvine neurobiologist Hans Keirstead and his research team have launched a project to develop stem cell lines that genetically match human patients. These lines would allow scientists to better study conditions ranging from diabetes to Parkinson's disease, and they would provide the basis for potential patient-specific stem cell treatments. Report

Diabetes researchers, investigating how the body supplies itself with insulin, discovered to their surprise that adult stem cells, which they expected to play a crucial role in the process, were nowhere to be found. Many researchers had proposed that adult stem cells develop into insulin-producing cells, called beta cells, in the pancreas. Instead, the beta cells themselves divide, although slowly, to replenish their own population. Release

U.S. scientists have shown that bone marrow stem cells can switch roles and produce keratocan, a protein involved in the growth of the cornea. Release

The state of Wisconsin has given a $1 million combined loan and grant to Stemina Biomarker Discovery, which is involved in embryonic stem cell research. Stemina is in the process of raising $1.5 million in angel funds. Report

Cancer Research

A team of scientists at team at Queen Mary, University of London have developed a 3-D model of breast cancer in the laboratory - a development that should accelerate research in the field and possibly do away with the need for animal studies. Report

Working with a compilation of research studies, scientists pinpointed a list of more than 200 chemicals in the environment that are linked to breast cancer in animal tests. The team set out to assess the growing volume of environmental triggers for one of the deadliest forms of cancers. Report

A new study of Gardasil indicates that the HPV vaccine had only limited success in preventing cancer precursors in teen girls. But researchers noted that the problem was due to the fact that many of the girls in the three-year study had already been exposed to the virus. Report

HPV has also been linked to an increased risk of throat cancer. Report

Over the next three months scientists in Hong Kong and Australia will test an experimental cancer therapy that isolates and trains the white blood cells in nose and throat cancer patients to attack the disease. They're working on the theory that classes of t-cells have memory. Once they've fought an invader off, they can be re-injected back into a patient to spur a similar response. Report

Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have discovered inherited variations in certain genes that make children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia susceptible to the toxic side effects caused by chemotherapy medications. Release

More Research

Scientists at Sheffield University say they have developed artificial blood made from plastic molecules with an iron atom at the core that can carry oxygen throughout the body. Report

A research team at Columbia University Medical Center found that by manipulating a gene linked to cell growth they were able to spur mice to create new cells that could be used to repair damage from a heart attack. "We genetically engineered these mice to keep expressing this gene that becomes silent after birth," said researcher Hina Chaudhry. Report

Researchers at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine developed the first antibody that detects the only known cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig's disease. Release

A glucosamine-like dietary supplement has been found to suppress the damaging autoimmune response seen in multiple sclerosis and type-1 diabetes mellitus, according to University of California, Irvine health sciences researchers. Release

A thin strip that dissolves in the mouth like a popular breath-freshener could someday provide life-saving rotavirus vaccine to infants in impoverished areas. The drug-delivery system was developed by Johns Hopkins undergraduate biomedical engineering students. Release

The identification of more than 200 new proteins that interact with the mutated protein that causes Huntington's disease opens the door to developing treatments for the fatal neurodegenerative disorder, says a Baylor College of Medicine researcher. Release

UCLA AIDS Institute researchers have found a peptide that encourages HIV infection. They say that the work opens the way to using peptides with HIV-based vectors for a new gene therapy approach to the disease. Release

The University of California, Los Angeles, and U.S. Veterans Affairs researchers say Parkinson's disease and narcolepsy share something in common. The findings suggest a different clinical course of treatment for people suffering with Parkinson's that may ameliorate their sleep symptoms, according to the report published in the June issue of the journal Brain. Release

A fundamental genetic mechanism that shuts down an important gene in healthy immune system cells has been discovered that could one day lead to new therapies against infections, leukemia and other cancers. Results of a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study on the mechanism, called a somatic stop-codon mutation, are being reported in the online journal PLoS ONE. Release

Federal officials have launched two new initiatives aimed at increasing the number of minorities in clinical trials. Currently, whites make up 89 percent of volunteers. Report

And finally… UK insurers say they may ask for permission to start using the results of genetic tests to set the rates for high-value policies. Report

ALSO NOTED: New type of cells developed for tissue repair; diabetes drug boosts efficacy of cancer drug;

Mon, 07 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

Stem Cell Research

Advanced Cell Technology has turned embryonic stem cells into repair cells that can be used to repair tissue damage. Depending on the chemical used to spur change in the cell, the stem cells can be transformed to hemangioblasts that can be used as blood-building cells or cells that form the lining of blood vessels. Report

Scientists have developed more efficient adult stem cells from embryonic stem cells, offering a new type of cell that can repair tissue damage in the heart and eye damage from diabetes. Report

Diabetes researchers investigating how the body supplies itself with insulin discovered to their surprise that adult stem cells, which they expected to play a crucial role in the process, were nowhere to be found. Many researchers had proposed that adult stem cells develop into insulin-producing cells, called beta cells, in the pancreas. Instead, the beta cells themselves divide, although slowly, to replenish their own population. Release

Johns Hopkins undergraduates have invented a device to improve cell therapy for diabetes patients by anchoring transplanted insulin-producing cells inside a major blood vessel. Report

Invitrogen and Cytori Therapeutics entered into a global strategic supply and commercialization agreement to offer adipose-derived stem cell-based research products to life science researchers. Release

Cancer Research

A widely used diabetes drug dramatically boosted the potency of platinum-based cancer drugs when administered together to a variety of cancer cell lines and to mice with tumors, scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report. Release

Scientists at Ohio State have been studying a genetic marker that will help distinguish between chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Report

In a study that could point to novel therapies to prevent cancer spread, or metastasis, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine have targeted a sugar that supports blood vessel growth in the tumor. Their findings will be published in the May 7 online issue of Journal of Cell Biology. Report

Hamilton College researchers have identified molecules that have been shown to be effective in the fight against breast cancer. Release

The BCR-ABL gene in chronic myeloid leukemia stem cells has a tendency to quickly mutate, and this may help explain why patients are predisposed to resistance to drugs like imatinib that target that gene, according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Release

More research

In an animal study, mice inoculated with an experimental oral vaccine effectively targeted prion proteins that cause brain damage in cases of chronic wasting disease. The researchers involved, who presented their study at the meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, said that the vaccine demonstrated an ability to arouse the immune system of mice to prevent or delay symptoms of prion disease. About 20 percent of the 100 mice in the study demonstrated high levels of antibodies and remained disease free for 400 days. Report

Most research on Lou Gehrig's disease therapeutics has been based on the assumption that its two forms (sporadic and hereditary) are similar in their underlying cause. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found an absolute biochemical distinction between these two disease variants, suggesting that current approaches to drug discovery should be re-examined. Report

A study by researchers in the United States has found that women who took an epilepsy drug during their pregnancy had a higher risk of giving birth to children with a lower IQ or with mental retardation. Release

Some high blood pressure medicines may help protect older adults from declines in memory and other cognitive function, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, reported today at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society in Seattle. Release

A study led by Mayo Clinic found that adalimumab is an effective treatment for adults with Crohn's disease who do not respond to infliximab therapy. These findings were published online by Annals of Internal Medicine. Release

Genetically modified cows to produce cheap insulin

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

Scientists working for Bio Sidus in Argentina have developed a genetically modified cow that can produce insulin in its milk. The company says the four cloned calves will start producing the insulin-rich milk when they reach maturity. To clone the cows, scientists insert a human gene into an embryo, which is then implanted in the mother. The insulin is later extracted from the milk. Bio Sidus said that the procedure can be used to develop insulin for 30 percent less than current methods and that 25 of the cows would be enough to provide insulin for all 1.5 million diabetics in Argentina. There are 200 million diabetics worldwide. Bio Sidus is one of a number of companies involved in transgenics.

- read the report on the new insulin manufacturing process from The Standard

Related Article:
EMEA panel recommends goat-milk therapy. Report

Researcher touts new work on insulin-producing cells

Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:01:39 -0500

Wendy Macfarlane of Britain's Brighton University told an international diabetes conference in South Africa that new work in the field indicates that efforts to make both embryonic and adult stem cells produce insulin can lead to animal studies of a replacement beta cell by the turn of the decade. The goal is to develop an insulin producing cell that can respond to the fluctuation of glucose levels in the body. Diabetes kills 3.8 million people every year and has been growing at epidemic rates. In another 20 years diabetes could afflict 380 million people if no cure is found.

- read the AFP report on diabetes research

Related Article:
Team coaxes stem cells to produce insulin. Report
Researchers probe chemical link to diabetes cure. Report
Genetic variation key indicator of diabetes risk. Report

Scientists grow new heart valves from stem cells

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 19:01:39 -0500

Scientists at the University of Zurich have used stem cells obtained from fetal fluid to grow new heart valves for repairing damaged hearts. The work builds on new research into growing bladders and blood vessels from stem cells as researchers find more effective ways to mend or replace damaged body parts. By using stem cells drawn from the patient, researchers say they will eventually be able to provide new body parts that will be far superior to transplants. These parts will be able to grow with the body. About one in every hundred newborns have heart damage, making it a leading killer of babies in the United States. Theoretically the amniotic stem cells can also be frozen and stored for later use, when aging patients will need to replace deteriorating body parts.

- check out this report on the stem cell work from the Seattle Times

Related Article:
Team coaxes stem cells to produce insulin. Report
Stem cell researchers create tiny livers. Report
New study to use stem cells after heart attacks. Report