糖尿病新药

特深沉

From: Scientific American http://www.sciam.com\news\053002\2.html 翻译：特深沉 MEDICINE New Drug Stops Diabetes in Its Tracks A new drug halts the progression of Type I diabetes, researchers writing in the New England Journal of Medicine report today. Affecting nearly a million people in the U.S. alone, Type I, or juvenile, diabetes occurs when the body抯 own immune system attacks the insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas, preventing the formation of insulin--the protein that controls glucose levels--and thus hindering the regulation of sugar in the blood. Most diabetics must continually suffer painful insulin injections to control their blood sugar levels. But clinical trial results show that patients taking the new drug, called hOKT3g1(ala-ala), continued to make their own insulin and did not need externally created protein. By destroying the immune cells responsible for preventing insulin production, this treatment has allowed diabetics to live shot-free for at least a year without any serious side effects. 今天科研人员在New England医学杂志发表的报道指出，一种新药可以中断I型糖尿病的进程。 I型糖尿病，或青少年糖尿病，仅在美国就至少侵袭了100万人。它的发生是因机体自身的免疫 系统攻击胰腺中用于制造胰岛素的胰岛细胞，阻止胰岛素的形成。（胰岛素是种控制葡萄糖水 平的蛋白质）。因此妨碍了血糖的调节。多数糖尿病患者都必须持续经受注射胰岛素的痛苦来 控制血糖水平。但临床实验显示，患者用了一种新药，称作hOKT3g1(ala-ala)，可以持续制造 他们自身的胰岛素，而不再需要外部创造的蛋白。通过破坏阻止胰岛素形成的免疫细胞，该疗 法允许糖尿病患者至少一年时间不用注射，且无严重副作用。 Kevan C. Herold of Columbia University and his colleagues administered hOKT3g1(ala-ala) to 12 newly diagnosed diabetics between the ages of seven and 27. After a year, nine of these patients exhibited little, if any, reduction in insulin production and still did not require external insulin injections. Ten of the 12 diabetics who did not receive the drug, on the other hand, showed a significant decrease in their ability to make the glucose regulating protein. 哥伦比亚大学的Kevan C. Herold和他的同事将hOKT3g1(ala-ala)服给12名新诊断出的糖尿病 患者，年龄从10岁到27岁。一年后，这些患者中的九人显示出微量的（或没有）胰岛素制造 减少，且仍不需要额外的胰岛素注射。与之相比，没有吃药的糖尿病患者中，12人中的10名 显示有显著的胰岛素制造减少。 The advantages of controlling diabetes metabolically--through continued insulin production instead of injection--are great. "People with diabetes who make some insulin have a much easier time in controlling their disease than those who do not," Herold comments. In addition, fewer complications of the disease, such as vascular, eye and kidney problems, occur in patients whose bodies can still assemble the vital protein. Although other experimental immune-suppressive drugs have generated dangerous side effects (kidney disease, increased infection risk, and certain types of cancer, among them), hOKT3g1(ala-ala) is almost risk-free: because the drug acts selectively on T cells--the immune cells that halt insulin production--and needs to be ingested for only two weeks, patients experienced no serious side effects. 通过持续制造胰岛素来代替注射，对控制糖尿病代谢是有巨大益处的。Herold 解释道，“糖尿 病患者如能制造胰岛素，会比不能制造的病人更容易控制疾病。”另外，血管，眼，肾，等方 面的并发症，在患者机体能合成胰岛素时较少发生。虽然其他实验中的免疫抑制类药物会产生 危险的副作用（肾脏疾病，感染危险增加，某些癌症），而hOKT3g1(ala-ala)几乎没有风险： 因为该药选择性的作用于T细胞（阻止干扰素制造的免疫细胞），会在两周内被吸收，患者不 会经受严重的副作用。 Further testing of the drug in more people and for periods longer than a year is planned, but researchers are optimistic. "The remarkable results reported in this study provide enormous hope for finding a cure for people with Type I diabetes," remarks Robert Goldstein of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. "For the first time it has been shown that progression of the destructive autoimmune response can be stopped with few side effects and islet function preserved." --Rachael Moeller 正计划对该药进行更多患者，更长时期的验证。科研人员很乐观。 “本研究报告的非凡结果，给我们更大的 希望去寻找治疗I型糖尿病的方法。”青少年糖尿病研究基金会的Robert Goldstein解释说，“这首次显示出， 可以用很小的副作用来阻止破坏性的自体免疫反应进程，并保留胰岛功能。” --Rachael Moeller

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