In 2010, work started on a radical new treatment for gout that involves the patient’s own genetically-engineered cells inside a small capsule implanted in the body. This may one day become the “diabetes capsule,” as it has great potential for all metabolic disorders. Lead researcher Professor Martin Fussenegger of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich has been working on this device which balances chemicals and hormones in the body by acting like a synthetic organ. In tests with mice, it has been proven that the technique works in the case of gout. The reprogrammed cells were able to detect uric acid increase and release an enzyme to destroy it. It is this genetic circuitry’s ability to detect a condition, process the information, and produce a beneficial chemical response that shows such promise in treating other imbalances in the body. This early research may one day produce a diabetes capsule that can help regulate metabolism, balance blood sugar levels, and possibly help with obesity.
Diabetes Cell Therapy Research
In the past few years, there has been an explosion in cell therapy research which may lead to radical new forms of treatment for diabetics, including the implanted “diabetes capsule.” For example, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are working with healthy stem cells and regulatory T cells (also known as suppressor T cells) from people with type 1 diabetes, proving that the healthy cells can “re-educate” the compromised cells, enabling the production of insulin in the pancreas. There is other stem cell research that involves replacing destroyed insulin-producing cells in patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes with healthy cells. Methods like these may one day be able to reverse diabetes, and the diabetes capsule may provide a new way to monitor and treat hormonal imbalances.
Diabetes Capsule and Clinical Trials
Professor Fussenegger and his research team were encouraged by their early experiments, and were hoping to test their genetically-engineered cellular pill in human trials within the next few years. However, they will first have to demonstrate that the tests are safe to perform on human subjects. Also, while the same concept that was able to detect and correct rising levels of uric acid could theoretically be used for other elements in the body, it will require a different monitoring system and a mechanism for controlling levels. It may be a little premature to announce the “diabetes capsule” as a new treatment for diabetes using this approach, but early findings were hopeful, and this is one of many fascinating new cell-based therapies currently being researched.
