(SCI) TURKISH SCIENTISTS' RESEARCH RISES HOPES FOR INSULIN-FREE TREATMENT FOR TYPE 1 DIABETES.

ANTALYA, Nov 16, 2009 (TUR) -- A Turkish scientist has succeeded in developing a method of insulin-free treatment for patients with Type 1 diabetes without using medicines suppressing their immune system.

Professor Salih Sanlioglu, chairman of the Human Gene Therapy Division of the Akdeniz University's Department of Medical Genetics, and his team's research rising hopes for patients with Type 1 diabetes made to the cover of October edition of the Human Gene Therapy magazine in the United States.

The research will be presented at a meeting of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy in Hannover, Germany, on November 21 and 25.

In an exclusive interview with the A.A, Professor Sanlioglu said, "the standard treatment of Type 1 diabetes is the delivery of artificial insulin via injection combined with careful monitoring of blood glucose levels using blood testing monitors. The most permanent treatment is pancreas transplantation, but it entails patients to use medicines suppressing their immune system for the rest of their life to prevent rejection of the new organ. And long-term use of such medicines leads to severe side effects such as renal failure."

"Another method is islet transplantation. We transplant pancreatic tissues from dead donators to livers of patients. Those islets of pancreatic beta cells produce insulin and our patients do not need injection for about five years. However, the islet-graft lose its efficiency in liver in the course of time. Then, our patients require insulin injection. Islet-graft failure appears to be a challenging issue to overcome. Thus, complementary gene therapy strategies are needed to improve the islet-graft survival following transplantation. We are now working on an experimental gene therapy by delivering adenovirus-mediated TRAIL gene into pancreatic islets. This method will prolong islet-graft survival," he added.

(UK-A)

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