New research published in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that specially engineered donor islet cells — the insulin-producing clusters in the pancreas — can survive in recipients for an extended period without the need for immunosuppressant medication.
The New England Journal of Medicine has published correspondence describing long-term survival of so-called hypoimmune allogeneic islets — donor islet cells that have been genetically modified to avoid triggering the body’s immune system — in recipients who received no immunosuppression (anti-rejection drugs). The finding is being reported in the journal’s endocrinology and immunology correspondence section.
Islet cells are tiny clusters within the pancreas that produce insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. In type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys these cells. Transplanting donor islets has long been a potential treatment route, but recipients have typically needed powerful anti-rejection drugs for life — medicines that carry serious side effects, including increased infection risk and kidney damage.
The ability to engineer donor cells that the immune system doesn’t attack — so-called “hypoimmune” cells — could, if confirmed in larger studies, remove that barrier. But the correspondence published by the NEJM represents early-stage findings rather than a ready clinical treatment.
No data from Kent patients is referenced in the publication, and NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board has made no local announcement linked to this research.
Anyone living with type 1 diabetes who has questions about their current treatment should speak to their GP or diabetes specialist team rather than drawing conclusions from early research findings. NHS 111 is available around the clock for general health queries.
Source: @NEJM