Friday, October 31, 2008
2:25 AM
Pigs & Diabetes
On 28th Oct, Today reported that A New Zealand company is preparing to implant pig cells into people as an experimental diabetes treatment, though some scientists warn that the risk of introducing a new virus to humans is too great. Biotechnology company Living Cell Technologies says it will start work immediately to
recruit eight patients with Type 1 diabetes to take part in cell implants from newborn pigs. The New Zealand government gave its approval last week.
The
piglet cells will be implanted in the abdomen to manufacture insulin, company medical director Bob Elliott said. The
cells will be coated in a seaweed-derived membrane to discourage the volunteers’immune systems from rejecting the foreign cells. The coated implant also means there is no need to use immunosuppressant
drugs, he noted.
The cells produce pig insulin, which is very similar to human insulin, and replicates its effects by lowering blood sugar, Mr Elliott said. The harmful effects of Type 1 diabetes — including blindness, premature coronary illness and limb amputation caused by poor blood circulation — could be delayed by the treatment but would not be entirely eliminated, he said.
Mr Elliott has run two previous trials, the first with six patients in New Zealand in 1995 to 1996. The other, in Russia with 10 patients, began in July last year. Scientists and ethicists are debating whether animal cells or organs should be transplanted into humans to improve treatments or deal with shortages of donated human organs.
One risk is that viruses that exist in pigs but not in humans could jump species, potentially causing new illnesses and — in the worst case scenario — new pandemics.
Scientists say there are more than
100 pig viruses that can potentially transfer to humans.
Mr Elliott said recent research suggests the pig viruses thought to be most infectious for humans — porcine endogenous retroviruses — can be monitored and controlled.
Mr Elliott said pig insulin has been injected to treat diabetes in humans for 50 years and, “nobody came to any harm”. “You are much more likely to get some nasty disease from an organ donation or an organ donor than you are from pigs,” he said.
Ms Megan Sykes, an expert in immunology and cross-species transplants at Harvard Medical School, said it was too early to start human trials of the treatment because no scientific data from animal studies had been published, and because of the risk of a new virus spreading to humans.
The study will use cells from newborn offspring of pigs recovered from Auckland Island south of New Zealand, where they had remained
isolated from outside diseases for some 200 years.
This case study will actually help diabetic patients to be relieved from their daily painful jabs if it’s successful. However this means
Muslim diabetic cannot use this therapy right????
Labels: Health Fact
