RESEARCHERS from the region have begun work on a potential world first cure for diabetes.

Scientists in Newcastle believe that ordinary muscle tissue can be made to produce insulin.

Without regular injections of insulin, people with type one diabetes become seriously ill and eventually fall into a coma and die.

But if a way can be found to convert muscle into an insulin factory - by a simple injection of human insulin genes - it could become an established treatment for the estimated 350,000 people in the UK who need daily insulin injections to stay alive.

It could even become a treatment option for the million-plus Britons with type two diabetes, who control their condition through diet, exercise and medication.

While scientists acknowledge that such a cure is probably on the distant horizon, they believe advanced insulin-producing islet cell transplants could be available to North-East patients with severe type one diabetes as soon as 2007.

Only a handful of insulin-producing islet cell transplants have taken place in the world. They work by taking insulin islet cells from a number of donor pancreases and transplanting them into the liver of the person with diabetes under local anaesthetic.

So far, only two UK patients have undergone insulin cell transplants, both at King's College Hospital in London.

Both patients have much better control of their diabetes, although they still need to inject a reduced amount of insulin and have to take anti-rejection drugs.

But now there are detailed plans in hand to provide an insulin cell transplant service in Newcastle within three years.

Dr Jim Shaw, a senior fellow at Newcastle University and a member of the expanding Diabetes Research Group on Tyneside, is the consultant leading efforts to "persuade" muscle to produce insulin.

"It sounds a little off-the-wall but this approach has been successfully demonstrated in animals which have produced insulin for several months after a single injection of insulin genes," he said.

There is widespread excitement at the Government's go-ahead for pancreas transplants, and growing interest in the potential of islet transplants.

But the relatively low-tech approach being pursued by Dr Shaw's team may turn out to be the best approach in the long run. Dr Shaw explained that pancreas transplants are relatively risky and are only suitable for diabetics who also need kidney dialysis.

Islet transplantation is still in its infancy and this approach is likely to be limited to a minority of type one diabetics.

But if muscle can be made to produce insulin after a simple injection of genetic material, this could become the established treatment for everyone with type one diabetes.

The Diabetes Research Group is based at the Newcastle Hospitals Trust. Much of the work is funded by the charity Diabetes UK.