The Next Diabetes Warriors: Chimpanzees?

Filed in archive Research on April 30, 2006

Could chimpanzees be the newest answer to the prevention and treatment of diabetes? Scientists have made a fascinating new discovery: a cell produced by chimpanzees, apparently lost in humans through evolution, could be the answer to how to eliminate Type 1 diabetes, and a plethora of life-threatening diseases. No, really.

In a study to be published on-line in advance of publication in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of May 1-5, UCSD researchers report that unlike T cells from chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas (the "great apes" which are human's closest evolutionary relatives), human T cells lack expression of certain "Siglec" molecules. Siglecs are immune-dampening proteins that bind to sialic acids, the complex sugars found on the outside of cells. Siglec molecules seem to regulate T cell activation in chimpanzees by restricting the degree of signaling from the T cell receptor, which normally triggers the response of T cells in the immune system.

This may explain some major differences in susceptibility to certain diseases between humans and great apes. One example is the lack of progression to AIDS in the great majority of chimpanzees infected with HIV virus. It could also account for the rarity of T-cell mediated liver damage, such as chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis and cancer, following Hepatitis B or C infection in chimpanzees. In addition, several other common human T cell-mediated diseases, including bronchial asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes, have, so far, not been reported in chimpanzees or other great apes.

No word yet on how researchers will use this information to help humans, but I have to admit, I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

(Photo Source: african safari Pictures)