Potential Breakthrough in Type 1 Diabetes Treatment
Published:07 Jun.2023 Source:Rice University
Rice University bioengineer Omid Veiseh and collaborators identified new biomaterial formulations that could help turn the page on Type 1 diabetes treatment, opening the door to a more sustainable, long-term, self-regulating way to handle the disease. To do so, they developed a new screening technique that involves tagging each biomaterial formulation in a library of hundreds with a unique "barcode" before implanting them in live subjects.
However, materials with optimal biocompatibility proved very hard to find, due in part to screening constraints. On one hand, immune system response to a given implanted biomaterial can only be assessed in a live host. On the other hand, different biomaterial formulations look the same, making it impossible to identify high-performing ones in the absence of some telltale trait. This made testing more than one biomaterial per host unfeasible.
Trials are underway for stem cell-derived islet cell use in diabetic patients. However, current islet treatments require immunosuppression, making it a taxing way to treat Type 1 diabetes. Placing actual HUVEC cells inside the biomaterial capsules increased the likelihood that the host immune system would detect a foreign presence. This makes the experiment more robust than simply testing for immune response to the biomaterials alone. The new high-throughput "barcoding" approach can be deployed to screen for other medical applications using fewer live test subjects.