Diabetics may soon need just 1 shot a year

PTI Jun 18, 2013, 06.08AM IST

LONDON: Scientists have made a stem cell breakthrough that could make it possible to treat diabetics with an annual insulin jab, eliminating the need for painful daily injections.

The technique involves engineering blood stem cells into insulin-secreting cells.

Experts at London's Imperial College, led by Nagy Habib , and scientists at Hammersmith Hospital are now planning human trials of the new treatment after success in laboratory studies, the 'Daily Express' reported.

"This is a fantastic breakthrough that we hope will end the burden of daily jabs for diabetics," said Dr Paul Mintz, a leading stem cell researcher at Imperial College, who is part of the team pioneering the research.

"The beauty of this treatment is that we manipulate the patient's own stem cells, avoiding the complication of giving them something foreign which their body will reject ," he said.

In diabetes, the pancreas fails to make insulin which crucially controls blood sugar levels or it doesn't make enough.

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Diabetics may soon need just 1 shot a year