Projet: Stimulating pancreatic nerve to inhibit type 1 diabetes

Présentation

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease with selective destruction of the pancreas’ insulin-producing cells by the patient’s own immune cells.  These self-destructive immune cells get activated in the pancreatic lymph nodes. The research published in Nature Biotechnology (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-019-0295-8, doi: 10.1038/s41587-019-0295-8) has broken new ground by investigating whether stimulation of the nerves to pancreatic lymph nodes will reduce this activation, the associated destruction, and consequently the symptoms and progression of T1D. The results show a reversal of the disease and prevention of disease recurrence in the mouse model of T1D. The findings illustrate how bioelectronic medicines may one day provide very targeted and highly effective treatments.

Key findings include

• The identification a sympathetic nerve that is selective for pancreatic lymph nodes and not connected to other surrounding structures.
• In contrast to non-stimulated diabetic animals that developed high glucose levels and suffered diabetic complications.
  • Continuous stimulation of the nerve led to a reversion to a healthy baseline followed by no increase in glucose levels – the hallmark of T1D
  • Stimulation upon increase in blood glucose levels led to slower disease progression
• The inflammatory attack on the insulin-producing parts of the pancreas was shown to be reduced in the stimulated animals

These findings provide the first evidence of neuromodulation as a means to suppress the auto-immune attack on the pancreas and raise the possibility for a future bioelectronic medicine for T1D. Further work is now needed to translate these findings for human therapeutic benefit.