A new vaccine developed by a Swedish team of scientists may help children and adolescents diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes better manage the disease. The vaccine is made from the GAD protein, which is contained in insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas. And the bodies of these diabetic patients react to GAD as if they were allergic to the protein.
The children given twin jabs demonstrated greater activity in their pancreas. That response, while far from curing the disease, would significantly lower patients' short- and long-term risks from the disease.
"The field is trying to move away from broad-based immunosuppression to targeting one specific immune response, and this is an early attempt to develop a much more focused approach to modulate immune function in new-onset diabetes," said Dr. Richard Insel, executive vice president of research for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
- read the report from HealthDay