About

Diabetes is a pandemic disease characterized by metabolic abnormalities resulting from the combined role of immune and genetic mechanisms. Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is known as a disease characterized by autoimmune destruction of pancreatic beta cells. Although insulin injection is widely used in T1DM treatment, this treatment method cannot provide ideal blood sugar control, which leads to the development of chronic complications such as nephropathy, neuropathy, and retinopathy in patients over time. The clinical prevalence of pancreatic organ transplantation and pancreatic islet transplantation, which are applied in T1DM treatment, is significantly limited due to the difficulty of finding a pancreatic organ donor. Therefore, gene therapy, which is a promising new treatment method for many diseases, needs to be developed as an alternative therapy method. Since all T1DM patients and the majority of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients become insulin-dependent over time due to beta-cell loss, insulin gene transfer through gene transfer vectors could be a potential therapeutic approach that mimics the endogenous insulin synthesis profile in diabetic patients. In our project, providing permanent insulin gene expression without causing any toxic effects was one of the main goals.