Patents
Patents are essential in biomedical research because they protect innovations and make it possible to turn scientific discoveries into therapies that benefit patients. At the Leuven Diabetes Lab, research on immune mechanisms behind beta‑cell destruction, early biomarkers, and novel therapies is designed not only to advance scientific understanding but also to generate patentable discoveries, ensuring that insights from the lab can become real-world solutions for patients.
@Beta Cell Bank (Brussels, Belgium)
Improved methods for pancreatic islet transplantation
The present invention provides methods that increases the graft survival rate of pancreatic islets after pancreatic islet transplantation, maintains the survival of pancreatic islets ex vivo, and reduce the number of transplanted pancreatic islets required for normalizing blood glucose levels. When performing pancreatic islet transplantation, by pre-incubating pancreatic islets with stem cells or by transplanting pancreatic islets and stem cells in contact with each other, it is possible to significantly improve graft survival rate of transplanted pancreatic islets and reduce the number of transplanted pancreatic islets required for normalizing blood glucose levels. The invention also provides compositions for pancreatic islet transplantation comprising the islets and the stem cells or conditioned medium from stem cell culture islets. Thus, the composition and methods are useful for treating diabetes.
@Diabetes Journal
Biomarkers for diabetes therapy
The present invention represents an in vitro implementable method for assessing the response to immune tolerance restoration therapy by evaluating the expression of specific microRNAs (miRNAs) as biomarkers of residual beta-cell function. The method includes oligonucleotide probes specific for prognostic miRNAs and allows for quantification of miR-365 and/or miR-193b levels together with miR-125a and/or miR-34a in plasma samples. The method includes the steps of (i) the synthesis of cDNA from miRNAs and (ii) the quantification of the above biomarkers by quantitative PCR, normalized on control miRNAs, in samples taken before and after treatment. Reduced expression of the above biomarkers results in responsiveness to therapy, and vice versa. Possible applications: (bio)pharmaceutical applications: diagnostic kits for autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes; decision-support tool during the follow-up of type 1 diabetes treatments. Advantages: reliable markers, high sensitivity (up to 87%) and specificity (up to 80%), prediction of therapy success, and identification prior to therapy of those type 1 diabetes patients that could benefit therefrom.
@Molecular & Cellular Proteomics
Citrullinated peptides for diagnosis or treatment of diabetes
The present invention provides novel epitopes of post-translationally modified GRP78, which are identified as autoantigens in human type 1 diabetes and which are potential antigens for use in therapeutic or prophylactic vaccines for the treatment of people in different stages of type 1 diabetes The present invention also provides novel methods for early detection or diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.
