Production of pancreatic islet cells and delivery of insulin

Patent Number: 6967019

This patent teaches ways of making gastrointestinal organ cells and pancreatic cells express insulin in vitro, conceptually for introduction in vivo. The patent essentially teaches that introduction of a neuroendocrine class B basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor gene or the neurogenin3 (Ngn3) gene into gastrointestinal organ cells or pancreatic cells, respectively, endows ability to produce insulin. These ideas are interesting since the author of the patent published that some of these transcription factors are critical in development of the endocrine pancreas. For example, Ngn3 is known to induce transcription of other islet specific proteins such as nkx2.2 and PAX4 (Smith SB, et al. Neurogenin3 activates the islet differentiation program while repressing its own expression. Mol Endocrinol. 2004 Jan;18(1):142-9.). Other groups have also reported that Ngn-3 is found on pancreatic precursor cells (Jensen J, et al. Independent development of pancreatic alpha- and beta-cells from neurogenin3-expressing precursors: a role for the notch pathway in repression of premature differentiation. Diabetes. 2000 Feb;49(2):163-76.). The patent has 4 independent claims. The first covers making gastrointestinal organ cell express insulin in vitro by transfection with a neuroendocrine bHLH transcription factor. The second covers the same thing except it is a method for producing a "mammalian" insulin-producing cell in vitro. The third covers making a pancreatic cell express insulin by transfection with ngn-3. The fourth covers "A method for producing INSULIN (note it doesnt say insulin-producing cell, but only insulin) in vitro using methods similar to independent claims 1 and 2.

View this patent on the USPTO website.