The Diabetes Vaccine: The Wait Is Short
A clinical study conducted by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, has shown that it is possible to develop a vaccine that would prevent the development of type 1 diabetes. The results were published in the journal Diabetes Care.
Darya
In the case of type 1 diabetes, the body's immune system attacks cells that produce insulin. When there are too few insulin-producing cells, the body can no longer regulate blood sugar levels, and the person must take insulin injections for life.
Hypothesis and research objectives
A major question in type 1 diabetes research is whether and how the immune system's attack can be slowed or even stopped completely. One possible strategy was based on altering the immune defense by introducing a protein that the immune system cells respond to, in the form of a vaccination. This hypothesis was proposed by Professor Johnny Ludvigsson of Linköping University. To put it simply, Ludvigsson suggested giving the immune system an external enemy, thus shifting its attention from its own protein to a foreign one. Then the body could continue to produce some insulin on its own.
Evidence base
The 109 participants, ages 12 to 24, had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes within the previous 6 months and were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group received three injections of GAD protein at 1-month intervals and vitamin D tablets, while the other group (control) received a placebo. Neither participants nor researchers knew which patients received GAD-protein treatment in the randomized, double-blind study.
Participants' natural insulin production was measured at the beginning of the study and again after 15 months. Several other measures were also taken, such as changes in long-term blood sugar levels and the number of supplemental insulin patients had to take each day.
"Patients in the immunotherapy subgroup had a much slower decline in insulin production compared to the control group that received the placebo," said Johnny Ludvigsson. “The study did not observe any unwanted side effects that could be associated with the therapy."
"We consider GAD protein administration to be a promising, simple, and safe way to maintain insulin production in about half of patients with type 1 diabetes. That's why we're looking forward to more research, and we hope it will lead to a drug that can change the course of type 1 diabetes," said Ludvigsson.
Sources: Johnny Ludvigsson et al, Intralymphatic Glutamic Acid Decarboxylase in Recent-Onset Type 1 Diabetes: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Phase IIb Trial, Diabetes Care (2021). DOI: 10.2337/dc21-0318