New findings published in Cell Reports include a map developed by researchers of “gene activity in the pancreas of people with Type 1 diabetes.”
The map “shows which genes are turned on, or expressed, and where they are active within the organ, helping researchers pinpoint the biological signals driving the disease.” The work “highlights potential targets for new drugs to slow the disease or, perhaps one day, stop it altogether.”
Scientists used a method called spatial transcriptomics to “place thin tissue slices on slides that capture genetic material from thousands of tiny spots. They then sequence the captured genetic material to identify which genes are turned on at each location.” They specifically mapped gene activity across the pancreas tissue from four groups of people: people without diabetes, individuals with one diabetes-related autoantibody, those with multiple diabetes-related autoantibodies, and patients with Type 1 diabetes.
Autoantibodies are predictive of someone at “high risk of Type 1 diabetes even if they had no symptoms.” Scientists specifically wanted to examine the disease at several stages, from “healthy tissue to early immune warning signs and, finally, to established diabetes.”
Scientists have “tested drugs developed for other autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, and hoped they might also work in Type 1 diabetes. The new gene map offers a more direct strategy for developing drugs to treat the disease.”
