Medicine's next big thing: Lettuce for diabetes

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Medicine's next big thing: Lettuce for diabetes

BACKGROUND: Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children andyoung adults and was previously known as juvenile diabetes. In type1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormonethat is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food intoenergy needed for daily life. According to the Juvenile DiabetesResearch Foundation, as many as three million Americans may havetype 1 diabetes. The disease can lead to many complicationsincluding heart disease, kidney disease, blindness, nerve damage,foot complications and skin problems. Patients with this form ofdiabetes must carefully monitor their blood sugar levels.

Current therapies for type 1 diabetes involve delivering insulin tothe bloodstream. This can be done in a variety of ways. Patientscan inject themselves with insulin, inhale the insulin or wear apump that delivers the insulin to the bloodstream. The insulin doesnot cure the problem; it is only a momentary fix. Patients mustcontinue to take insulin for the rest of their lives.

CAN LETTUCE HELP? Henry Daniell, Ph.D., a molecular biologist atthe University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla., has beenexperimenting with a new way to deliver insulin. He and his teaminject the human gene for insulin into leafs of lettuce. Thelettuce can be ground up and made into a powdered capsule. "This isgenetically-modified lettuce," Dr. Daniell explained to Ivanhoe."Every single cell in the lettuce leaf contains 10,000 copies ofthis insulin gene." He gave the lettuce powder to mice withdiabetes once a week and the results were shocking. After justeight weeks of treatment, all the diabetic mice had normal bloodsugar levels and their cells were producing normal levels ofinsulin. The researchers did not observe any adverse side effectsin the mice. These results and prior research indicate that insulincapsules could someday be used to prevent diabetes before symptomsappear and treat the disease in its later stages.

HOW IT WORKS: In Dr. Daniell's method, the lettuce plant cells helpthe insulin reach the intestine. Once the plant cells get there,bacteria slowly break down the cell walls and gradually releaseinsulin into the bloodstream. This creates an immune response inthe body and teaches it to release its own insulin. "It is the sameinsulin that is injected, but here what we are doing is instead ofinjecting it in the blood system, we are presenting it to theimmune cells and then asking the immune cells to see that this isyour own protein," Dr. Daniell said. "What we have done is to teachthe body how to cure this disorder. This is a totally new concept,a new platform to use this oral delivery system to fix this immunedisorder."

Dr. Daniell says because this is a plant-based therapy, it wouldonly cost pennies to produce. "You don't need to purify this," henoted. "You don't need to inject this, so all of these expenses,which are associated with human therapeutic delivery, areeliminated using this."

HUMAN TRIALS: The next step is to test the lettuce capsules inhumans. Dr. Daniell says his research team already has offers fromformal partners, and the University of Central Florida isnegotiating with them to start a phase 1 clinical trial for humanpatients with type 1 diabetes. "We are anticipating the same resultas we found in the animal model," Dr. Daniell remarked. He says hisresearch may one day also help patients with type 2 diabetes,multiple sclerosis and some forms of arthritis.


Source: wptv.com


Publication date: 8/18/2008