Gene therapy stops diabetic nerve damage, in rats
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One of the serious complications of diabetes is nerve damage that, because of lack of sensation, can lead to foot injuries, infection and even amputation. Now, researchers raise the hope that gene therapy might prevent this happening.
They have shown in experiments with rats that transferring a gene for a protein that promotes expression of a growth factor, VEGF-A, protects against diabetic neuropathy, as the condition is called.
About 50 percent of people with diabetes develop this complication within 25 years after being diagnosed, the researchers note in the research journal Diabetes, but there is currently no effective treatment for diabetic neuropathy.
Dr. Sally A. Price from the University of Manchester, UK and colleagues investigated whether injecting an engineered promoter gene (ZFP-TF) into diabetic rats would boost the animals’ production of VEGF-A and so prevent the progression of neuropathy.
Animals treated with the gene therapy showed an increase in nerve conduction velocities in the treated limb versus the untreated limb, the team found. Repeated injections two weeks apart led to robust and significant protection of both motor and sensory nerves.
Dr. Elizabeth Wolffe, Corporate Communications Director for Sangamo Biosciences, Richmond, California, which is developing ZFP-TF gene therapy, told Reuters Health that it is already in early human trials.
“This is a new approach to attempt to protect and, perhaps, to regenerate the damaged nerves,” Wolffe said.
She said that the treatment was well tolerated in 12 patients with mild to moderate diabetic neuropathy in an early trial and that the next step in testing is currently under way. A multicenter, phase II trial is planned for the second half of 2006.
SOURCE: Diabetes, June 2006.
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