A great study was recently published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal called Expression of cholera toxin B–proinsulin fusion protein in lettuce and tobacco chloroplasts – oral administration protects against development of insulitis in non-obese diabetic mice.

The study demonstrates that it may be possible to get around the main reason why Type 1 Diabetics have to take insulin shots which is because the stomach breaks down insulin during the digestive process. These researchers added the insulin gene to tobacco plants, which caused the plants to create insulin within their cell walls. Having the insulin protected by a plant’s cell wall is a way to get the hormone into the bloodstream without it getting broken down by the digestive process until it is further along down the digestive track.

The amazing and most promising data gleamed from this study is that the diabetic mice fed this special tobacco plant actually were producing normal amounts of insulin after five weeks of treatment. The insulitius was halted and the beta-cells were preserved. Basically, it halted the progression of disease and normalized blood glucose levels!

I’ve always thought that taking insulin is a necessary evil. Injecting your body with a foreign substance really just cant be good for the immune system, which is already confused because it is attacking the insulin producing beta cells. A therapy like this sounds like it could give time for the body to heal itself, or perhaps this could be used in conjunction with Denise Faustman’s research which “retrains” the bodies own immune system which would cure the root cause of the disease, the destruction of islet cells or insulitius.

Human trials should begin next year for Denise Faustman and hopefully Henry Daniell will have his tobacco plants being tested in human trials soon as well. From this great Science Daily Article it appears that human trails are the next step. Both approaches appear to yield immense promise.