Cancer Drugs May Treat Type 1 Diabetes

TUESDAY, Nov. 18 (HealthDay News) — Gleevec, a wonder drug that effectively treats leukemia and other cancers, may also reverse type 1 diabetes, University of California San Francisco, researchers report.

In experiments with mice, they found that Gleevec and a similar cancer drug, Sutent, could prevent the onset of type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults, and is caused by the inability of the body to make insulin.

"Although targeted to the Bcr-Abl kinase, Gleevec has been shown to affect related kinases including platelet-derived growth factor potentially involved in various cell types critical to the development and progression of autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes," lead researcher Jeffrey Bluestone, director of the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco, said.

Read the full article at pharmdaily.com