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Health

Could gene therapy cure diabetes?

graphic September 30, 1998
Web posted at: 12:01 p.m. EDT (1601 GMT)

(CNN) -- A gene therapy study on lactose intolerance could eventually lead to a cure for diabetes, a disease that affects 16 million people in the United States.

Researchers at Jefferson Medical Hospital in Philadelphia engineered the gene that instructs the body to metabolize dairy products, and gave the substance orally to rats.

The process gives the animal's gut the instructions it needs to make lactose in the body.

"And then from then on, that animal would be able to break down that lactose and would not need treatment again," explained Dr. Matthew During, a researcher on the project.

During thinks a similar process could tell the body how to make insulin.

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Louise Schiavone talks with the scientists
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"The goal would be to have the insulin gene in this oral formulation, swallow the insulin gene, and then the cells within the intestine would actually have the instructions to make insulin," During said.

Scientists are currently formulating plans to test the insulin theory on animals.

"The goal would be to have the insulin gene in this oral formulation, swallow the insulin gene, and then the cells within the intestine would actually have the instructions to make insulin," During said.

Further tests would be needed to find out if the body can be instructed to manufacture the amount of insulin needed to combat the various types of diabetes. Patients who suffer from Type I diabetes, sometimes known as juvenile-onset diabetes, are insulin-dependent. Patients who suffer from Type II diabetes are not insulin-dependent.

It could be five to 10 years before researchers know whether their theory works.

Correspondent Louise Schiavone contributed to this report.

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