Gleevac, which is considered a wonder drug to treat leukemia and other cancers, may also prove helpful to reverse type1 diabetes, researchers from University of California San Francisco find.

While noticing effects on mice, the researchers also found that Gleevec and another similar cancer drug Sutent helped to avoid the development of type1 diabetes. Type1 diabetes occurs because of the body’s inability to produce insulin and more often it is diagnosed in children and young adults.

Jeffrey Bluestone, who led the study, says: “ Gleevec seems to affect related kinases even platelet-derived growth factor that are possibly involved in different cell types  grave to the progression and development of autoimmune disease like type1 diabetes”.

“The study concludes that this group of drugs can reverse or prevent diabetes in a mouse model with type1 diabetes,” Bluestone added.

The study has been published in online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.

In their study, Bluestone and colleagues observed that if the mice are treated with Gleevec and Sutent for seven weeks before the beginning of type1 diabetes, they don’t seem to develop the disease even long after stopping treatment.

They further noted that 80 percent of the animals with type1 diabetes had their disease reversed when they were given Gleevec or Sutent for eight to 10 weeks.