A new vaccine holds promise in preventing type 1 diabetes — a disease that strikes 35,000 people each year in the United States.
UCLA Immunologist, Daniel Kaufman, Ph.D., is testing the vaccine — called Diamyd –out in mice and is finding if given early enough, it prevents the animals from developing type 1 diabetes. Human trials have shown it can help preserve insulin-producing cells in people who have been newly diagnosed, and the next step will be to see if it can completely prevent the disease before people are diagnosed, like the vaccine did in mice. But even keeping the body producing a little bit of insulin is noteworthy because that helps keep blood glucose levels in check and control some of the long term complications associated with diabetes.
The vaccine works by slowing down the attack on the immune system where insulin-producing cells are destroyed.
Kaufman says, “The real goal is to identify the children who are at high risk for type 1 diabetes and prevent the auto-immune response from destroying the beta cells… We think that the earlier that we can identify the children that are destined to develop diabetes and you can change their immune responses, that they’ll be fine for the rest of their lives.”
SOURCE: Interview with Daniel Kaufman, Ph.D., of UCLA Molecular and Medical Pharmacology