Canadian researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto have discovered a chemical that is naturally present in the body prevented and even reversed Type 1 diabetes in mice, according to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is characterized by the immune system’s destruction of the beta cells in the pancreas that make and secrete insulin. As a result, the body makes little or no insulin.
The only conventional treatment for Type 1 diabetes is insulin injection, but insulin is not a cure as it does not prevent or reverse the loss of beta cells.
A team led by Dr. Qinghua Wang and Dr. Gerald Prud’homme found that injections of gamma-aminobutyric acid or GABA – an amino acid produced by beta cells in the pancreas – not only prevented diabetes in mice, but even reversed the disease.
The St. Michael’s study is the first to identify and describe GABA’s importance in regulating the survival and function of pancreatic beta cells in mice.
GABA and related therapies will have to be tested in human clinical trials before they can be considered as a new treatment for Type 1 diabetes, said Dr. Wang.