New drug increases insulin production in mouse cells by 700%

Diabetes has had a serious impact on populations around the world. In the United States alone, approximately 29.7 million people of all ages, or 8.9% of the population, were diagnosed with the disease in 2021.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 352,000 children and adolescents under the age of 20, or 35 out of 10,000 American youth, have been diagnosed with diabetes.

Today, scientists at Mount Sinai and City of Hope have sadly made a major breakthrough that can reverse the disease by developing a new drug treatment.

Diabetes drug increases cells’ insulin production by 700%

In a new study, they tested the drug on diabetic mice, which showed a significant increase in insulin-producing cells of 700 percent in just three months.

Catherine Charneski, the study’s editor, commented that diabetes is usually the result of an insufficient number of beta cells (pancreatic cells that produce and release insulin to regulate blood sugar levels in the body) and an insufficient mass of beta cells.

There are currently no approved treatments to increase beta cell numbers. However, in this new development, the authors showed that “combined treatment with a DYRK1A inhibitor and a GLP1R agonist in vivo promoted substantial increases in human beta cell mass transplanted into immunodeficient mice.”

Harmine (a natural molecule found in some plants) works by deterring an enzyme called DYRK1A found in beta cells. It is combined with a GLP1 receptor agonist (a class of diabetes drugs, including the infamous Ozempic).

Experiment conducted on diabetic mice

The experiments were carried out on immunodeficient mice (type 1 and type 2 diabetes) using the combined drug. This led to a significant increase in the mass of human beta cells that had been transplanted into the mice.

Insulin-producing cells develop in the body in just a few months.

The treatment was effective in mice with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, with the disease reversing in about three months. The healing state was maintained even after treatment was stopped.

“Three months of combination treatment restored glucose homeostasis in a streptozotocin-induced diabetes model, with effects lasting at least a month after treatment stopped,” Charneski said.

Dr. Adolfo Garcia-Ocaña, corresponding author of the study, told New Atlas that this is the first time scientists have developed a drug treatment that increases the number of adult human beta cells in vivo.

“This research provides hope for the use of future regenerative therapies to potentially treat the hundreds of millions of people with diabetes,” he said.

The study noted that the observed effects were due to changes in beta cell multiplication, function and longevity, as shown by the initial analysis.

Although the results may be promising, more research is needed to determine how effective the drug is for people with this growing disease.

“Although promising, further research will be needed to confirm the mechanisms of action and to determine whether the therapeutic benefits and safety of the approach could be translated to humans,” Charneski says.

The study was published last week (July 10, 2024) in the journal – Scientific translational medicine.