2 Cancer Drugs show promise for Reversal Of Type 1 Diabetes

It is still at the mice testing stage, but 80% tested had a reversal of diabetes and in other cases it prevented the onset of diabetes. Side effects, etc. will need to be studied as well, but this looks very promising if in fact the drugs can prevent diabetes for many, especially children if their DNA possibly showed they might have a tendency to develop diabetes. BD

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have reported that two common cancer drugs have been used to block and reverse type 1 diabetes in mice. The JDRF-funded study, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D., director of the Diabetes Center at UCSF and an expert in the field of autoimmunity.

The drugs - Imatinib and Sunitnib, sold as Gleevec and Sutent, respectively - are used to treat cancer by blocking tyrosine kinases, an enzyme that modify cells' signaling proteins through a simple biochemical change.