Scientists have taken a key step in the pursuit of a cure for diabetes that restores the body’s ability to make insulin.

Share on Pinterest Researchers find that a ‘cocktail’ of two classes of drug can help the body produce insulin.

They have created a new drug cocktail that can induce insulin-producing cells to regenerate at a rate that is fast enough to work in human treatments.

The recent study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, NY, reveals how a novel combination of two classes of drug can make adult human beta cells replicate at a rate of 5–8 percent per day.

The team reports the findings in a paper that features in the journal Cell Metabolism.

“We are very excited about this new observation,” says lead author Dr. Andrew F. Stewart, who is director of the Mount Sinai Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism Institute, “because, for the first time, we are able to see rates of human cell beta cell replication that are sufficient to replenish beta cell mass in human beings.”

In earlier work, the team had investigated a small molecule that blocks an enzyme called dual-specificity tyrosine-phosphorylation-regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A). This molecule led to a beta cell proliferation rate of 1.5 to 3 percent.

In the new study, the team demonstrated how adding a small molecule from a different class of drug raised the proliferation rate to an average of 5–8 percent. The second drug blocks members of the transforming growth factor beta superfamily (TGFβSF).

However, while the study has taken an important step by showing that the drug combination can regenerate beta cells fast enough for treatment, there is still some work to do.

As Dr. Stewart explains, “The next big hurdle is figuring out how to deliver them directly to the pancreas.”