Gene-edited stem cells: the new weapon against diabetes
Stem cells were the pioneering force behind the new wave of personalized medicine of the last decade, while CRISPR and other gene-editing techniques have come to revolutionize gene therapy and the treatment of genetic diseases. It had to happen that they would eventually join forces. A new study has used gene-edited stem cells to revert diabetes in mice.
Wolfram syndrome is a recessive genetic disease caused by mutations in the WFS1 gene, one of its symptoms being diabetes. With no other solution for patients than symptomatic treatment, the researchers tested whether correcting the mutated gene in patient derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which would then differentiate to pancreatic β cells, the cells responsible for the production of insulin and which is impaired in patients with Wolfram syndrome and those suffering from diabetes type I.
Read more at MappingIgnorance.org
