Hormone discovery could spell end for daily diabetes jab

Scientists have discovered an insulin-boosting hormone that may end the need for painful daily injections for diabetics by paving way for once-a-year jabs.
Researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) found the hormone, called betatrophin, causes mice to produce insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells by up to 30 times the normal rate.
The new beta cells only produce insulin when called for by the body, offering the potential for the natural regulation of insulin and a great reduction in the complications associated with diabetes, the leading medical cause of amputations and non-genetic loss of vision, 'Harvard gazette' reported.
"If this could be used in people it could eventually mean that instead of taking insulin injections three times a day, you might take an injection of this hormone once a week or once a month, or in the best case maybe even once a year," said Doug Melton, Harvard's Xander University Professor and co-chair of the University's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology.

Type 2 diabetes is usually caused by a combination of excess weight and lack of exercise. It causes patients to slowly lose beta cells and the ability to produce adequate insulin.
"Our idea here is relatively simple. We would provide this hormone, the type 2 diabetic will make more of their own insulin-producing cells, and this will slow down, if not stop, the progression of their diabetes. I've never seen any treatment that causes such an enormous leap in beta cell replication," Melton said.

Though Melton sees betatrophin primarily as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, he believes it might play a role in the treatment of type 1 diabetes as well, perhaps boosting the number of beta cells and slowing the progression of that autoimmune disease when it's first diagnosed.

Working with Harvard's Office of Technology Development, Melton and postdoctoral fellow Peng Yi already have a collaborative agreement with Evotec, a German biotech firm that now has 15 scientists working on betatrophin.
The compound has been licensed to Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson company that now, too, has scientists working to move betatrophin toward the clinic.