Gene therapy successfully reverses type 2 diabetes and obesity in mice



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Spanish >> Science-Technology

Updated at 07/10/2018 – 10:56

Keywords: therapy, genetics, reversal, diabetes, obesity, mice

Ratone s patients treated have lost weight and reduced insulin resistance. (Georgejason / Getty Images / iStockphoto)

Barcelona, ​​07/10/2018 (People Online) – Researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) have developed gene therapy that succeeds in reverse type 2 diabetes and obesity in mice. Under the direction of researcher Icrea Fátima Bosch, scientists from the Center for Animal Biotechnology and Terápia Genica of UAB (CBATEG) have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to counteract the resistance to the disease. In healthy mice, this same gene therapy allows them to age healthier by protecting them from being overweight and overweight. Insulin resistance badociated with age. The results are published today in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. Researchers are already working to replicate study results in larger animals, closer to humans, and to be able to apply therapy in a clinical trial with diabetics as soon as possible.

In this therapy, researchers use a genetically engineered virus so that it does not have the ability to infect or replicate as a Trojan to enter the cells. Once there, the virus releases a therapeutic gene, FGF21, which is inserted into the nucleus of the cell and causes it to continually and constantly produce a protein, FGF21, which then goes into the bloodstream and is distributed throughout the body. This protein is a hormone that secretes naturally in various organs and has been thought to act to normalize the energy mechanism.

The advantage of the therapeutic gene FGF21 is that it allows to manipulate certain tissues of the body so that they become a plant species of this hormone. The researchers mostly applied it to the liver, but they also tested it on adipose tissue and skeletal muscle.

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