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December 08, 2016

[Report] β-cell–mimetic designer cells provide closed-loop glycemic control

ScienceNOW - Fetched: December 8th, 2016, 3:00pm UTC
Chronically deregulated blood-glucose concentrations in diabetes mellitus result from a loss of pancreatic insulin-producing β cells (type 1 diabetes, T1D) or from impaired insulin sensitivity of body cells and glucose-stimulated insulin release (type 2 diabetes, T2D). Here, we show that therapeutically applicable β-cell–mimetic designer cells can be established by minimal engineering of human cells. We achieved glucose responsiveness by a synthetic circuit that couples glycolysis-mediated calcium entry to an excitation-transcription system controlling therapeutic transgene expression. Implanted circuit-carrying cells corrected insulin deficiency and self-sufficiently abolished persistent hyperglycemia in T1D mice. Similarly, glucose-inducible glucagon-like peptide 1 transcription improved endogenous glucose-stimulated insulin release and glucose tolerance in T2D mice. These systems may enable a combination of diagnosis and treatment for diabetes mellitus therapy. Authors: Mingqi Xie, Haifeng Ye, Hui Wang, Ghislaine Charpin-El Hamri, Claude Lormeau, Pratik Saxena, Jörg Stelling, Martin Fussenegger

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