Klearchos Papas, a UA professor in the department of surgery, is working on a new way to treat Type 1 diabetes. The treatment would release insulin into a person when it senses that their glucose level is too low.
Professors and researchers in the University of Arizona's College of Medicine —Tucson have been testing implantable devices that regulate insulin and the possibility of reversing diabetes without the need for immunosuppression.
Klearchos Papas has worked for the UA since 2011 and is the director of the Institute for Cellular Transplantation.
Papas has been heading this research at the UA and developing the implantable device in collaboration with researchers and scientists worldwide.
Islet transplantation is a medical innovation that allows adults with Type 1 diabetes to receive islets from donors through the liver. The islets then begin to produce insulin for the body. However, there are flaws to this method, according to Papas.
"An issue with applying this to the larger scale is it requires human islets from human organs," Papas said. "There are only about 5,000 donors available in the U.S., and there are millions of people who could potentially benefit."
Papas also said injecting these cells into the liver still requires suppression of the immune system, because the cells come from a different human donor and will be rejected if the immune system is not suppressed.
"You really cannot do this on children, it has a lot of side effects," Papas said.
Papas' implantable device protects the transplanted islets from being attacked by the body's immune system. The device is often referred to as a "tea bag."
This tea bag device was first developed by Robert Johnson, research professor in the Department of Surgery at the UA, in the 1990s and has been modified by Papas for current research. Johnson is a Type 1 diabetic, diagnosed in 1969, and has been conducting research on diabetes throughout his career.
Science over the years has led to the recent creation of cells that can be grown, allowing for a more abundant source of cells that can be used for this research and the treatment of millions of people.
"Several companies and groups have succeeded recently in making cells that release insulin in response to glucose like the normal beta cells," Papas said. "Not quite there yet, but it's very close."
Johnson said he came out of retirement to join Papas at UA to further conduct this research once he learned of the cells that could be converted to be insulin producing.
"The real breakthrough in this field of transplanting cells to treat diabetes has come through the work done on stem cells," Johnson said.
The tea bag device, however, cannot yet be tested on humans. Current trials include testing the device on rodents and pigs.
Leah Steyn, assistant research scientist in the College of Medicine, oversees all the animal research in the college. She has officially been working under Papas since 2015.
"We take [the devices] and load them with cells, or islets, and we actually transplant those into diabetic animals," Steyn said. "We're looking at reversing diabetes in animals with those devices as a proof of concept, and eventually that will go into humans."
Steyn said they have had success in their testing on rodents, specifically rats, and were able to reverse the animal's diabetes.
"We have our first diabetic pigs studies going right now, and they look pretty promising," Steyn said.
A lot of this work is funded through grants that Papas receives. His research has recently landed him a two-year, $1.2 million grant from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to continue his research.
"I have received quite a bit of funding from them," Papas said. "I think this is like the sixth or seventh grant that I have received throughout the years."
Papas said if they rely solely on the money from grants, they could be testing the devices on humans in three to five years. However, if their lab partnered with a pharmaceutical company or somebody that could accelerate the work, they could be testing on humans in 12 to 18 months.
"That's as fast as we could get there if we had the funding we needed," Papas said.
Papas said as the research moves closer to being ready for human testing, the work gets more expensive and more intense. He added, along with funding from JDRF, he also receives funding from National Institutes of Health.
"Each one of them covers a piece of the puzzle," Papas said.
Papas expressed his thanks to Dr. Leigh Neumayer, chair of the Department of Surgery, and Dr. Robert Harland, surgical director of solid organ transplantation at UA, because they have been integral to the project's success. He also shared his gratitude for the support of UA leadership and President Dr. Robert Robbins.
http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2019/04/new-type-1-diabetes-treatment-aims-to-automatically-control-blood-sugar-levels
Klearchos Papas has worked for the UA since 2011 and is the director of the Institute for Cellular Transplantation.
Papas has been heading this research at the UA and developing the implantable device in collaboration with researchers and scientists worldwide.
Islet transplantation is a medical innovation that allows adults with Type 1 diabetes to receive islets from donors through the liver. The islets then begin to produce insulin for the body. However, there are flaws to this method, according to Papas.
"An issue with applying this to the larger scale is it requires human islets from human organs," Papas said. "There are only about 5,000 donors available in the U.S., and there are millions of people who could potentially benefit."
Papas also said injecting these cells into the liver still requires suppression of the immune system, because the cells come from a different human donor and will be rejected if the immune system is not suppressed.
"You really cannot do this on children, it has a lot of side effects," Papas said.
Papas' implantable device protects the transplanted islets from being attacked by the body's immune system. The device is often referred to as a "tea bag."
This tea bag device was first developed by Robert Johnson, research professor in the Department of Surgery at the UA, in the 1990s and has been modified by Papas for current research. Johnson is a Type 1 diabetic, diagnosed in 1969, and has been conducting research on diabetes throughout his career.
Science over the years has led to the recent creation of cells that can be grown, allowing for a more abundant source of cells that can be used for this research and the treatment of millions of people.
"Several companies and groups have succeeded recently in making cells that release insulin in response to glucose like the normal beta cells," Papas said. "Not quite there yet, but it's very close."
Johnson said he came out of retirement to join Papas at UA to further conduct this research once he learned of the cells that could be converted to be insulin producing.
"The real breakthrough in this field of transplanting cells to treat diabetes has come through the work done on stem cells," Johnson said.
The tea bag device, however, cannot yet be tested on humans. Current trials include testing the device on rodents and pigs.
Leah Steyn, assistant research scientist in the College of Medicine, oversees all the animal research in the college. She has officially been working under Papas since 2015.
"We take [the devices] and load them with cells, or islets, and we actually transplant those into diabetic animals," Steyn said. "We're looking at reversing diabetes in animals with those devices as a proof of concept, and eventually that will go into humans."
Steyn said they have had success in their testing on rodents, specifically rats, and were able to reverse the animal's diabetes.
"We have our first diabetic pigs studies going right now, and they look pretty promising," Steyn said.
A lot of this work is funded through grants that Papas receives. His research has recently landed him a two-year, $1.2 million grant from Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to continue his research.
"I have received quite a bit of funding from them," Papas said. "I think this is like the sixth or seventh grant that I have received throughout the years."
Papas said if they rely solely on the money from grants, they could be testing the devices on humans in three to five years. However, if their lab partnered with a pharmaceutical company or somebody that could accelerate the work, they could be testing on humans in 12 to 18 months.
"That's as fast as we could get there if we had the funding we needed," Papas said.
Papas said as the research moves closer to being ready for human testing, the work gets more expensive and more intense. He added, along with funding from JDRF, he also receives funding from National Institutes of Health.
"Each one of them covers a piece of the puzzle," Papas said.
Papas expressed his thanks to Dr. Leigh Neumayer, chair of the Department of Surgery, and Dr. Robert Harland, surgical director of solid organ transplantation at UA, because they have been integral to the project's success. He also shared his gratitude for the support of UA leadership and President Dr. Robert Robbins.
http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2019/04/new-type-1-diabetes-treatment-aims-to-automatically-control-blood-sugar-levels
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