Innovative regenerative genetic and nano therapies for diabetes and metabolic disease

Abstract

Diabetes and metabolic dysfunction represent growing global health challenges, and current therapies mitigate hyperglycemia without sufficiently altering the underlying disease processes. Rapid advances in regenerative medicine, gene editing, and nano-enabled drug delivery are reshaping therapeutic possibilities, offering the potential to restore β-cell function, enhance insulin sensitivity, and personalize care at an unprecedented scale. This review synthesizes emerging therapeutic strategies with the greatest translational promise, including stem cell-derived islet replacement, immune-evasive encapsulation devices, CRISPR-based gene correction, and targeted or glucose-responsive nanocarriers engineered for noninvasive insulin delivery. Complementary advances in multi-omics profiling, proteogenomics, microbiome science, and artificial intelligence are enabling stratification of patients based on molecular signatures, optimizing therapeutic selection, and predicting clinical outcomes. Despite remarkable breakthroughs-such as the early-phase clinical success of stem cell-derived β-cell replacement and organ-targeted lipid nanoparticles (LNPs)-significant barriers remain, including immunogenicity, off-target editing, scalability, ethical concerns, and long-term safety. By integrating mechanistic insights with translational developments, this review outlines a forward-looking perspective on next-generation treatments poised to shift diabetes care from glycemic management toward disease modification and personalized metabolic restoration.

Keywords

diabetes mellitus / metabolic dysfunction / stem cell therapy / gene therapy / β-cell regeneration / nanomedicine / drug delivery / precision medicine

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