Prevention of type 1 diabetes using early glycation products

PROJECT SUMMARY TypediabetesT Da devastating and expensive organ specific autoimmune disease once afflicting mainly juvenilesis increasing in incidence among US adults withexcess risk of death in womenThe long term objective of this project is to develop a preventive and complementary strategy for T D management that is non invasivelong lastingand low costEarly glycation productsEGPsgenerated in the first two steps of Maillard reaction glycation are proteins modified with reducing sugar moietiesand they are ubiquitous in our daily dietWe successfully produced early glycation productsEGPsfrom whey protein isolateWPIand glucose using the freeze drying methodand they were shown to be anti inflammatory based on functional analysis of cytokines chemokines produced by macrophagesFurtherin a T D modelthe non obese diabeticNODmousewe showed that EGPs protected the mice from hyperglycemia with down regulated CDcells in both thymus and spleen and decreased splenic MmacrophagesThese observations provide preclinical support for the potential nutraceutical application of EGPs for patients with insulitis and T De gmedical foodFor the large scale production of EGPsthe spray drying method is more appropriate due toits energyefficienciesand enhanced product and process flexibilityHoweverthe parameters for spray drying and the anti hyperglycemia effects of the spray dried products remained unknownThe proposed research in phase I will focus onAimtesting whether the EGPs produced using the spray drying method exert a similar protection in T D andAimon testing that the uptake of EGPs has no adverse effects in host resistance mechanismsHGG Research LLC is a company that will generate EGPs by optimizing the parameters of spray drying for their productionResearch by the academic partnercurrently at the University of Georgiawill evaluate the T D prevention and toxicity following EGP uptakeNextit would be a logical extension to determine the effects of EGPs on T D prevention using other modelse gBiobreeding diabetes prone ratand the underlying mechanismse gmicrobiomeand investigate which EGP component sare active in this indicationReversing autoimmunity could be beneficial well beyond subjects with T DThe design of studies to test other autoimmune diseases such as Crohnandapos srheumatoid arthritis and lupus erythematous would be the next stage following this STTR projectWe believe that the proposed research is innovative and of great significanceand represents a frontier in health care and research PROJECT NARRATIVE It was estimated that diabetes accounted forof health expenditures inor at least $billionwith typediabetes accounts forbilliona figure expected to reach $billion inThe proposed research to use early glycation products derived from whey protein isolate and glucose for diabetes prevention and complementary treatment can potentially lead to the development of a novelmore affordable and sustained management for diabeteswhich addresses the limitations associated with the conventional treatmentsThe proposed research will lead to the discovery of treatment and biomarkers for subsequent human intervention studies in typediabetes and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases