2023-07-25 06:00:00
Could type 1 diabetes become a preventable disease? Yes, according to the results of a study by the Scripps Research Institute published in Science Translational Medicine.
T cells, a marker of type 1 diabetes?
According to the researchers, analysis of a type of immune cell (T cells) in the blood might be used to select patients at risk for preventive immunosuppressive treatment for type 1 diabetes.
Diabetes says “de type 1“is a chronic disease characterized by the presence of an excess of sugar in the blood called hyperglycemia, and due to a lack of insulin secretion by the pancreas, recalls theHealth Insurance.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system destroys cells in the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas that produce insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. ‘The autoimmune process that underlies type 1 diabetes can take years, with multiple starts and stops. It is unclear exactly how the process begins, although it is known to involve genetic factors and can be triggered by common viral infections.”explain the authors of the study.
To carry out their work, the researchers isolated and analyzed these T cells from mouse and human blood samples.
Identifying patients at risk for type 1 diabetes might be possible
Using a complex process of testing for autoimmune reactions in blood, they were able to develop an algorithm that correctly identified patients at risk for type 1 diabetes with 100% accuracy.
“These results represent a major step forward as they offer the possibility of detecting this autoimmune process while there is still time to prevent or significantly delay diabetes.”said the study’s lead author, Luc Teyton, a professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the Scripps Research Institute.
Until now doctors have looked at levels of antibodies to islets of Langerhans as early markers of disease in patients’ blood samples, but this antibody response was not a very accurate measure of the progression of autoimmunity. “Anti-islet antibody levels are poorly predictive at the individual level, and type 1 diabetes is fundamentally a T-cell mediated disease.”explains Luc Teyton.
Researchers are now working to make the process of isolating and analyzing T cells from blood samples more affordable and convenient, so that it can be more easily used in a clinical setting.
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