Insulin Cells Under Skin Could Save Diabetics From Jabs

Scientists have created artificial cells that act as sugar sensors and insulin producers, an advance that may spell an end to painful needle jabs to monitor blood glucose levels, making the everyday life of diabetics easier. Researchers have used the simplest approach yet to produce artificial beta cells from human kidney cells. The therapy involves a capsule of genetically engineered cells implanted under the skin that automatically release insulin as required. Diabetic mice that were treated with the cells were found to have normal blood sugar levels for several weeks. Previous approaches were based on stem cells, which the scientist allowed to mature into beta cells either by adding growth factors of by incorporating complex genetic networks. For the new approach, researchers at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) used a cell line based on human kidney cells, HEK cells. The researchers used the natural glucose transport proteins and potassium channels in the membrane of the HEK cells. They enhanced these with a voltage dependent calcium channel and a gene for the production of insulin and GLP-1, a hormone involved in the regulation of the blood sugar level. In the artificial beta cells, the HEK cells’ natural glucose from the bloodstream into the cell’s interior. When the blood sugar level exceeds a certain threshold, the potassium channels close. This flips the voltage distribution at the membrane, causing the calcium channels to open. As calcium flows in, it triggers the HEK cells’ built-in signaling cascade, leading to the production and secretion of insulin or GLP-1. In developing the artificial cells, experts had the help of a computer model which allows predictions to be made of cell behavior, which can be verified experimentally.