Research & Development World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE

Insulin Production Detected Decades after Disease Onset

By R&D Editors | February 27, 2012

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have detected signs of continuing insulin production in patients with Type 1 diabetes decades after disease onset.


The findings challenge a 26-year-established model that pancreatic β-cell function ceases entirely within one to two years of onset. The study reveals that C-peptide production, a marker of insulin and active pancreatic β-cells, can persist for decades after disease onset and remains functionally responsive. This suggests that patients with advanced disease, whose β-cell function was thought to have long ceased, may benefit from interventions to preserve β-cell function or to prevent complications.


“The old model of Type 1 diabetes progression—a window of activity of one to two years before pancreas ‘death’—has driven every clinical trial design over the last 20 years. All recent Phase 3 human clinical trials for immune interventions to preserve pancreatic function were on children with days or weeks of disease duration. If you were beyond a few weeks you were most likely exempt from any such trial,” says Denise Faustman, MD, PhD, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Immunobiology Laboratory.


“The opportunity to slow disease progression, perhaps even reverse it, is potentially longer than we think. Our data show the pancreas can be fighting a battle for survival up to 40 years after disease onset, and possibly longer,” she adds.


A novel ultrasensitive assay detected C-peptide in 80% of samples from Type 1 diabetes patients at up to 5 years after disease onset and in 10% of samples from patients with 31 to 40 years’ disease duration. While C-peptide levels showed a decline with increasing disease duration, the decline was over decades, not months as commonly thought. The assay, which is twenty-two times more sensitive than standard assays, was used to test blood samples from 182 patients between the ages of nine and 85 years old, with zero to 73 years’ disease duration.


The data show that C-peptide and glycaemic levels were related. The 182 patients were stratified into normoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic; with C-peptide levels grouped into four ranges: 0 to 1.5 pmol/L (non-responsive), 1.5 to 5 pmol/L (responsive), 5 to 100 pmol/L (responsive) and >100 pmol/L (responsive). Hyperglycaemic subjects had significantly higher C-peptide levels than those from normoglycaemic subjects in each of the C-peptide level ranges, except for the non-responsive group, which had C-peptide levels below the level of detection of the ultrasensitive assay.


The findings follow Faustman’s promising results from a Phase I clinical trial of the generic drug BCG (bacillus Calmette-Guérin) to treat advanced Type 1 diabetes, which showed that low doses of BCG could transiently reverse Type 1 diabetes in human patients, even in those with more than a decade’s disease duration. Currently approved for vaccination against tuberculosis and for the treatment of bladder cancer, BCG is known to elevate levels of the immune modulator tumour necrosis factor (TNF), which Faustman’s lab has shown can temporarily eliminate the abnormal white blood cells responsible for Type 1 diabetes in both humans and mice.


“One of the key components of the trial was our development of a way to measure the death of the auto-reactive T-cells that destroy the ability of the pancreas to produce insulin. Not only did we observe and measure the death of these self-targeting immune cells, but we also saw evidence of the restoration of insulin production in patients who had Type 1 diabetes for more than a decade,” says Faustman.


The research is published in Diabetes Care.


Release Date: Feb. 21, 2012
Source: Massachusetts General Hospital

Related Articles Read More >

Eli Lilly facility
9 R&D developments this week: Lilly builds major R&D center, Stratolaunch tests hypersonic craft, IBM chief urges AI R&D funding
professional photo of wooly mammoth in nature --ar 2:1 --personalize sq85hce --v 6.1 Job ID: 47185eaa-b213-4624-8bee-44f9e882feaa
Why science ethicists are sounding skepticism and alarm on ‘de-extinction’
ALAFIA system speeds complex molecular simulations for University of Miami drug research
3d rendered illustration of the anatomy of a cancer cell
Funding flows to obesity, oncology and immunology: 2024 sales data show where science is paying off
rd newsletter
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, trends, and strategies in Research & Development.
RD 25 Power Index

R&D World Digital Issues

Fall 2024 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R&D magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • R&D World Home
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Careers
    • Chemistry
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Software
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
    • Semiconductors
  • R&D Market Pulse
  • R&D 100
    • Call for Nominations: The 2025 R&D 100 Awards
    • R&D 100 Awards Event
    • R&D 100 Submissions
    • Winner Archive
    • Explore the 2024 R&D 100 award winners and finalists
  • Resources
    • Research Reports
    • Digital Issues
    • R&D Index
    • Subscribe
    • Video
    • Webinars
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Top Labs
  • Advertise
  • SUBSCRIBE