Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults and was
previously known as juvenile diabetes.
In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is a hormone
that is needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed
for daily life. According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, as
many as three million Americans may have type 1 diabetes. The disease can
lead to many complications including heart disease, kidney disease,
blindness, nerve damage, foot complications and skin problems. Patients with
this form of diabetes must carefully monitor their blood sugar levels.

Current therapies for type 1 diabetes involve delivering insulin to the
bloodstream. This can be done in a variety of ways. Patients can inject
themselves with insulin, inhale the insulin or wear a pump that delivers the
insulin to the bloodstream. The insulin does not cure the problem; it is
only a momentary fix. Patients must continue to take insulin for the rest of
their lives.

Can lettuce help?

Henry Daniell, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at the University of Central
Florida in Orlando, Fla., has been experimenting with a new way to deliver
insulin. He and his team inject the human gene for insulin into leafs of
lettuce. The lettuce can be ground up and made into a powdered capsule.
"This is genetically-modified lettuce," Dr. Daniell explained to Ivanhoe.
"Every single cell in the lettuce leaf contains 10,000 copies of this
insulin gene." He gave the lettuce powder to mice with diabetes once a week
and the results were shocking. After just eight weeks of treatment, all the
diabetic mice had normal blood sugar levels and their cells were producing
normal levels of insulin. The researchers did not observe any adverse side
effects in the mice. These results and prior research indicate that insulin
capsules could someday be used to prevent diabetes before symptoms appear
and treat the disease in its later stages.

How it works

In Dr. Daniell's method, the lettuce plant cells help the insulin reach the
intestine. Once the plant cells get there, bacteria slowly break down the
cell walls and gradually release insulin into the bloodstream. This creates
an immune response in the body and teaches it to release its own insulin.
"It is the same insulin that is injected, but here what we are doing is
instead of injecting it in the blood system, we are presenting it to the
immune cells and then asking the immune cells to see that this is your own
protein," Dr. Daniell said. "What we have done is to teach the body how to
cure this disorder. This is a totally new concept, a new platform to use
this oral delivery system to fix this immune disorder."

Dr. Daniell says because this is a plant-based therapy, it would only cost
pennies to produce. "You don't need to purify this," he noted. "You don't
need to inject this, so all of these expenses, which are associated with
human therapeutic delivery, are eliminated using this."

Human trials

The next step is to test the lettuce capsules in humans. Dr. Daniell says
his research team already has offers from formal partners, and the
University of Central Florida is negotiating with them to start a phase 1
clinical trial for human patients with type 1 diabetes. "We are anticipating
the same result as we found in the animal model," Dr. Daniell remarked. He
says his research may one day also help patients with type 2 diabetes,
multiple sclerosis and some forms of arthritis.
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