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New York: In a first, the researchers found that a treatment affecting the immune system slowed the progression of clinical type 1 diabetes in high-risk individuals by two years or more.
"The findings have important implications for people, especially young people, who have parents with the disease because these people may be at high risk and benefit from early screening and early treatment" said Lisa Spain, project scientist at the National Institute of American Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).
The study, involving treatment with an anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (teplizumab), was conducted by Diabetes Type 1: TrialNet, an international collaboration to discover ways to delay or prevent type 1 diabetes.
The researchers recruited 76 participants aged 8 to 49, parents of people with type 1 diabetes, with at least two types of autoantibodies related to diabetes (proteins made by the immune system) and abnormal glucose tolerance ( sugar).
Participants were randomly assigned to either the treatment group, who received teplizumab for 14 days, or the control group, who received a placebo.
All participants were regularly tested for glucose tolerance until the end of the study or until they developed clinical type 1 diabetes – according to the first eventuality.
During the trial, 72% of the control group developed clinical diabetes compared to only 43% of the teplizumab group.
The median delay for control group members to develop clinical diabetes was just over 24 months, while those who had developed clinical diabetes in the treatment group had a median time to 48 months before moving on to the diagnosis.
"The difference in results was striking. This discovery is the first evidence that we have seen that early preventative treatment can delay clinical type 1 diabetes, "added Spain.
Type 1 diabetes develops when immune system T cells mistakenly destroy the body's own insulin-producing beta cells.
Insulin is needed to convert glucose into energy. Teplizumab targets T cells to reduce beta cell destruction.
The effects of the drug were most significant in the first year after its administration, the study published online in the New England Journal of Medicine announced.
(IANS)
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