A team of scientists from Plexxikon and UC San Francisco say they were able to eliminate symptoms of Type 1 diabetes in mice by treating them with Gleevec and Sutent, two well known cancer drugs. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists say they were also able to delay disease progression by giving the genetically modified mice daily treatments of Gleevec.

Only one in five of the treated mice became progressively diabetic at 30 weeks of age, compared to 71 percent in the untreated group. And the majority of mice remained Type 1-free at 50 weeks, which the researchers point to as a sign that the drugs could have a long-lasting effect.

The scientists say that the drugs appeared to work by soothing the animals' over-active immune system, which in turn stopped damaging the pancreas. Type 1 diabetes is caused when inflammation destroys cells in the pancreas. There is currently no known cure for Type 1 diabetes.

- read the report [1] from the Telegraph
- read the story [2] from Scientific American

Related Articles:
Developers, geneticists brainstorm diabetes therapies [3]
Analyst sees tighter diabetes drugs standards [4]