Peacekeeping Engineered T Cells Restore the Balance in Diabetes

For patients with type 1 diabetes, hope is around the corner with a new experimental therapy that uses genetically modified immune cells. Scientists at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute’s Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies have been granted a multi-million dollar research grant to accelerate the therapy’s path to the clinic.

In type 1 diabetes, the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to effectively regulate the body’s blood sugar levels. This is a result of a subset of white blood cells, called effector T cells, infiltrating the pancreas and destroying insulin-producing islet cells.

Regulatory T cells tell the effector T cells to calm down and limit damage to tissues like the pancreas.

Without sufficient insulin, patients often feel tired, thirsty, or hungry, and lose weight despite eating normally. By the time type 1 diabetes is diagnosed, around 80 to 90 percent of the islet cells are permanently damaged.

In healthy individuals, effector T cells are kept in check by regulatory T cells, or T regs. Regulatory T cells tell the effector T cells to calm down and limit damage to tissues like the pancreas, says David Rawlings, the senior investigator leading the research.