MONTREAL, Canada – McGill University has begun testing a drug developed by Exsulin Corp. of Burnsville, Minn. to treat Type 1 diabetes.
The school is conducting the 24-patient study with Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., which is overseeing the only Phase II human clinical trial in the United States that focuses on regenerating insulin-producing cells.
As many as 3 million people in the United States live with Type 1 diabetes, in which the immune system attacks islet cells in the pancreas, destroying the body’s ability to produce insulin. There is no cure, though Mayo recently announced a major initiative to collaborate with Minnesota companies to eventually find one.
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Exsulin’s technology focuses on certain proteins that can instruct progenitor cells–basic pancreatic cells that exhibit stem cell-like behavior–to form insulin-producing islet cells. Exsulin’s drug can’t replace all of the lost insulin, but animal and in vitro human studies show it can stabilize insulin production and prevent dramatic fluctuations that lead to heart disease, blindness and renal failure, McGill researchers say.
“This means that Exsulin could help rebuild the islets’ entire structure, restoring near-normal metabolic control–something that insulin injections alone cannot do,” Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, the study’s lead researcher, said in a statement.
