Imagine
this in the May 22nd 2009…yes 2009 issue of the New York
Times
May
22, 2009
First
Case of Diabetes Reported Since 2006
A
case of diabetes mellitus was reported last month. It is the first case
reported in the United States since 2006, the first since the discovery of the
INGAP treatment and several years after the conclusion of two comprehensive
nationwide diabetes campaigns. One campaign involved using INGAP for Type 1
diabetics and the other for Type 2 diabetics who require insulin shots.
The recent case is remarkable because it is so unusual. The outstanding
success of the campaigns is a result of the steadfast efforts of the
scientific community and private public diabetes funding..
Might
this be a possibility? It just
might happen sooner then we expect?
The
Diabetes Treatment to End Insulin Injections-Too Good to be True?
At
the 2002 ADA Scientific Sessions in San Francisco we had the opportunity to
meet with some of the researchers who reported on their research projects.
One of the projects that caught our attention was a little known study
from Eastern Virginia Medical School. This study focused on the use of a
peptide, which upon injection, caused precursor cells to develop into islet
cells and produce insulin in diabetic animals, in which diabetes was
completely reversed.
We
were granted an interview with one of the chief scientists on the project, Dr.
Aaron Vinik. We met with
Dr. Vinik for over 3 hours and walked away believing that this was too
good to be true! We
continued our research into the project by contacting Dr. Vinik’s associate,
Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg from McGill University in Montreal, GMP, the research
company in charge of the research, and Procter and Gamble who is helping to
finance the research. The more
information we had the more excited we became.
Over
the next few issues of Diabetes in Control.com we will present to you
information that we have accumulated from interviews with the lead
researchers, the GMP companies (research company) and also with P&G
Pharmaceuticals, who is a primary investor in the project.
We
hope you will find it to be as informative and exciting as we did.
We know it is in the early stages, but from the current information,
this could be ---------------
Part 1
THE
CURE FOR DIABETES? Or
Too Good to be True!
How
did it start?
We
met with Dr Lawrence Rosenberg of
McGill University while at a conference in Atlanta and he explained.
“It
really started back in 1922 when a technique using cellophane that comes from
the wrapping of cigarettes packages was used to wrap a liver in the
performance of a 2-stage hepatectomy (liver removal) in a dog.”
Then
in the early 1980’s, Dr. Rosenberg a surgical resident was working on
developing an animal model for studying the development of a condition called
chronic pancreatitis, as part of his PhD thesis.
It was known from the previous research, that partial obstruction of
the pancreas could cause this condition in the dog, so he modified the
procedure by dissecting out the pancreatic duct and directly tying a piece of
cellophane tape around it. This is the same tape that is used around gum
wrappers or cigarette boxes. In fact the cellophane tape came as a reel from
Imperial Tobacco!
Because
of the physical properties of the cellophane, a slow progressive obstruction
ensued (versus simply tying of the duct which would have caused an acute
inflammatory reaction with tissue destruction).
His
primary interest at the time was pancreatic cancer and not diabetes.
He hypothesized that duct cell proliferation in the pancreas was a
precursor to pancreatic cancer, and from the previous dog studies, it was
known that the cellophane technique induced cell proliferation in the
pancreas.
The
animal of choice for the study of pancreatic cancer was (and still is) the
hamster. It was impossible to perform the same surgery on the hamster pancreas
as was performed on the dog because of the small size. So really out of
desperation more than anything else, Dr. Rosenberg wrapped the cellophane tape
(cut to a 1 mm wide thickness) completely around the non-dissected head of the
pancreas. Luckily, it resulted in the same partial obstruction as was created
in the dog.
Serendipitously- they discovered that the cell proliferation, which did ensue,
was actually followed by islet cell neogenesis and new islet formation.
Hence was born the cellophane wrap technique coined “Sarandipity”,
for the induction of islet cell neogenesis- the first step on the twenty year
road to INGAP (Islet Neogenesis Associated Protein).
Using
this animal model, he demonstrated that drug-induced diabetes could be
reversed in hamsters.
In 1985, Dr. Rosenberg went to the University of Michigan to complete a
transplant surgery fellowship and the following year met Dr.
Aaron Vinik, currently Research Director of the Strelitz
Diabetes Institutes (SDI) at EVMS (Eastern Virginia Medical School). Dr.
Rosenberg presented the model and data at one of his research conferences and
Dr. Vinik, who was present, was intrigued enough to want to strike up a
collaboration. Together they would try to sort out how the surgical procedure
induced new islet formation. While in Michigan, they prepared a crude
pancreatic extract, called Ilotropin, that exhibited the ability to stimulate
new islet formation when injected into normal hamsters.
In 1987 Dr. Rosenberg returned to Montreal and in 1990 Arthur Vinik moved to
Norfolk. Nonetheless, they continued their collaboration.
Dr. Rosenberg continued to work on the physiology of ilotropin and on the cell
biology of islet cell neogenesis, while Arthur and a newly assembled team
began to try to isolate from ilotropin (a soup of proteins), the active
component. In the interim, they completed a study to demonstrate that
ilotropin could reverse diabetes in hamsters, much as the cellophane wrap
procedure did.
Finally
in 1997,through concerted collaborative effort, they were able to identify the
INGAP gene, as had been expressed in a novel fashion in the cellophane-wrapped
pancreas, Ultimately the INGAP protein was identified as the responsible agent
for islet neogenesis.
Next
week we will bring you details that answer the question:
To
view the features individually...
Part
2 of this feature,
CLICK
HERE
Part
3 of this feature,
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This Feature
For
more information on INGAP and islet regeneration, please visit the Diabetes
Institutes Foundation's website at www.dif.org or contact the Foundation at
difcure@aol.com.
Please
visit http://www.jci.org/cgi/content/full/99/9/2100
to read the entire research article
To review the Abstract please visit http://www.evms.edu/diabetes/ingap_abstract.html
To
review other collaborations between Dr.Vinik and Dr. Rosenberg please visit http://www.evms.edu/diabetes/research-pubs-abstracts2.html
and http://www.evms.edu/diabetes/research-pubs-abstracts1.html
