Incredible News for Dogs with Diabetes

This just in! A cure for canine diabetes has been found. Wonderful news for dogs, and probably for humans, too!

The Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona published a news release today, claiming that a single session of gene therapy has achieved a long-term cure (at least four years) for the dogs in their study.

The team, headed by Fatima Bosch, had already tested the therapy in mice. This success with dogs--the first time that a large animal has been cured of Type I Diabetes--paves the way for the therapy to be used by veterinarians, and in the longer term, for human beings.

Fatima Bosch with her team of researchers

The therapy uses genetically modified viruses to introduce genes into the dogs that help them to produce insulin and to regulate their blood sugar. They were able to eat and exercise normally and had none of the secondary complications usually associated with diabetes.

Let's hope it's as good as it sounds.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112779542/diabetes-cure-dogs-human-cure-to-follow-020713/
http://vetmedicine.about.com/od/diseasesandconditions/a/CW-CanineDiabetesCure.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/uadb-urc020713.php
http://www.infrafrontier.eu/partners/UAB.php
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/55/6/1546.short