"Rare Tumor Could Help Produce Insulin For Type 1 Diabetes, Study Shows" — Dr. Max Gomez
Researchers have found a surprising potential ally in the search for a cure for Type‐1 diabetes. It’s a rare tumor that produces a lot of what diabetics are missing – insulin. Type‐1 diabetics own immune system is destroying beta cells that make insulin. To cure diabetes you have to stop that auto‐immune attack, and then you have to replace the destroyed beta cells. That’s where the tumor comes in. Alecia Wesner was diagnosed with Type‐1 diabetes at age six, a continuous glucose monitor and a small insulin pump made managing her blood sugar easier, but not easy. “There’s no break from Type‐1 diabetes,” said Alicia. What gives Alecia a lot of hope for the future is what’s being done in the lab of Andrew Stewart, MD, director of the diabetes, obesity and metabolism institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He explained that even though Alicia has had diabetes for almost four decades, she still has a few beta cells left. The key to getting them to replicate enough to replace the destroyed beta cells may lie in the DNA of rare benign tumors called beta cell insulinomas. “Those small insulinoma tumors in the pancreas have the genomic recipe for knowing how to make beta cells replicate,” Dr. Stewart said.
- Andrew Stewart, MD, Director of the Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
