Engineered Bacteria to Benefit Diabetics

Diabetes is a severe disorder, which is characterized by insufficient insulin production in the body, or the inability for the hormone to be properly absorbed. This results in high levels of glucose (sugars) in the blood, which lead to severe complications, including blindness, vascular disease, and death, to name but a few. Therefore, bringing insulin levels back up is one of the main focuses in most types of diabetics. Some patients become insulin-dependent, and have to inject themselves with the stuff every day. These people could soon get help from a tiny bacteria, which has been specifically bioengineered to produce insulin directly in a patient's gut.

According to preliminary research presented this week at the American Chemical Society (ACS) annual meeting, in Washington, DC, a team of experts has already developed the friendly microorganisms, which have shown exquisite results in lab tests conducted on unsuspecting mice. The scientists who made the presentations recognized the fact that their study was still in its earliest stages, but said that, in time, they could learn how to grow the bacteria inside yogurt, eventually providing diabetes sufferers with an alternative treatment method, potentially as effective as injecting insulin.

“The concept of using bacteria to help perform (or fix) human disorders is extremely creative and interesting. Even if it does not directly lead to a solution to the question of diabetes, it opens up new avenues of thought in a more general sense,” University of Delaware chemical engineer Kelvin Lee, who has not been a direct part of the current investigation, explained in an e-mail to Technology Review. This type of research was made possible by recent advancements in understanding bacteria pathology and actions on the human body. Non-harmful varieties are even now added to various products, to boost the immune system, for instance.

Experts at the Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY, led by biochemical engineer John March, were in charge of the new research. While analyzing the symptoms of diabetes type I, in which patients were unable to produce insulin, they thought of recreating the pathway through which the hormone regularly acted. In healthy individuals, insulin triggers muscles and liver cells to essentially clean the blood of glucose, and store it for energy reserves. The experts essentially “hijacked” bacterial communication channels, which were already used by cells in the lining epithelial cells in the intestines and neighboring, friendly bacteria.

“If they are already signaling to one another, why not signal something we want?” March said. The new bacteria that would be taken in via yogurt or milk would make its way to the intestines and then act with chemical transmitters on the epithelial cells in very much the same way insulin does, triggering glucose collection.