One Step Closer to an Insulin Vaccine for Type 1 Diabetes

An international team of researchers from Bristol, Dresden, Munich, Vienna and Denver have successfully completed the first step in the development of an insulin vaccine to prevent type 1 diabetes. The Pre-POINT study has found a positive immune response in children at risk of type 1 diabetes who were given oral doses of insulin. Adverse reactions such as hypoglycaemia were not observed. The findings, published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), support the need for a next phase of testing, which will determine whether an insulin vaccine can prevent the outbreak of the disease over the longer term. Children with type 1 diabetes require several insulin injections every day of their lives. This is because the body’s own immune system destroys the beta cells in the pancreas – the cells that produce insulin. This is a process that starts early. Instead of ignoring proteins such as insulin, the immune defenses see...