Antibodies Hold Keys to Diabetes Breakthrough

A team from biotech firm Genentech have shown that an antibody of a growth factor protein, FGF21, which is involved in controlling blood sugar levels in the body, could help to reverse the metabolic condition.

With other studies finding that FGF21 can have benefits for laboratory monkeys and mice, researcher Junichiro Sonoda pointed out "the animals lose weight, and cholesterol, which increases cardiovascular risk, now goes down. And the good cholesterol called HDL, which level goes up with FGF21 treatment."

However, with humans tests have found that, to achieve a similar effect, people need to inject a lot of it and often. The scientists therefore produced antibodies that mimic FGF21 by attaching to the same receptors in the pancreas. When this was tested on mice, levels of blood sugar were normalized after just one injection, and it took nearly 40 days before levels were restored to a usual diabetic level.

Sonoda stated that, "This could become the very first class of drug that could reverse the disease instead of just treat the symptoms of disease. That would be a huge benefit for patients."

Science Translational Medicine, Dec. 2011