When your wellness is affected by type 1 diabetes, this means your immune system destroys your insulin-making cells. Your need this hormone to control your blood sugar levels, and so the disease can take its toll on your wellbeing, requiring you to have regular insulin injections throughout your life. However, according to an early trial, a vaccine may be able to retrain your immune system to stop attacking your body.
For the study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers at the Stanford University Medical Centre used a vaccine to retrain the immune system of 80 patients. Usually, vaccines tell your immune system to begin attacking, be it bacteria or viruses that cause disease. However, this vaccine had the opposite effect; forcing the immune system to cease its assault. After patients were given weekly injections for three months – targeting specific white blood cells which attack beta cells – the levels of those white blood cells fell but other parts of the immune system seemed to be left intact.
According to Professor Lawrence Steinman, of Stanford University Medical Centre, ‘We’re very excited by these results, which suggest that the immunologist’s dream of shutting down just a single subset of dysfunctional immune cells without wrecking the whole immune system may be attainable. This vaccine is a new concept. It’s shutting off a specific immune response.’ However, he added that as this research is at an early stage, further study is warranted. For example, the researchers need to undertake trials in larger groups of people which measure the long-term effect of the vaccine. As it stands, the effect of the vaccine seems to last for up to two months, so regular boosters would be needed.
Karen Addington, the UK chief executive of the type 1 diabetes charity JDRF, commented, ‘For the first time we have evidence that this particular type of vaccine has an effect in preserving insulin production in humans. This is a significant step forward on the journey towards a world without type 1 diabetes. We will build on this exciting DNA vaccine approach. Research into type 1 vaccines is a priority for JDRF’s multimillion-pound global research programme. But it is early days. Clinical use is still some time away.’