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A study that claimed gene therapy led to remission of type 1 diabetes in rats and mice has been retracted by the journal Nature at the request of three of the five authors.
The researchers asked for the retraction, because they couldn't reproduce the results of their study, which was published more than eight years ago, said the Associated Press. A fourth author insists the results are still valid, and a fifth author is deceased.
In the study, the researchers said they created a gene designed to produce an insulin-like chemical. After the gene was given to rodents with type 1 diabetes, they no longer suffered from the disease, according to the study. At the time, the researchers said this technique might prove effective in people.
However, after the study was published, diabetes experts told the AP that it wasn't clear the gene therapy would work in humans.
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The retraction on the Gene-Therapy Study is a step in the right direction because researchers should be willing to admit the failures along with the successes. At least now, others can move on and perhaps use what this original study employed and go on from there. It wasn't really a failure in the sense that they just couldn't replicate the results.
Evelyn Guzman
April 3, 2009 - 3:49amhttp://www.free-symptoms-of-diabetes-alert.com/newsletter.html (If you want to visit, just click but if it doesn’t work, copy and paste it onto your browser.)
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