A study published in the journal Diabetologia, has indicated that the drug otelixizumab appears to halt the auto-immune response that triggers the rapid decline in insulin production leading to type 1 diabetes.
This in effect halts damage to the pancreas, allowing it to continue to produce insulin.
The drug works by regulating ‘T-effector’ cells whose job is to protect the body against infection by attacking invading bacteria. One theory behind type 1 diabetes is that these T-effector cells become dysfunctional, attacking healthy cells (including insulin producing cells in the pancreas) as well as invading
organisms.
Patients given the six-day treatment in the study were able to continue to make their own insulin naturally or cut down on their insulin injections. The control group in the study needed rapidly increasing amounts of injected insulin by contrast.
Otelixizumab is currently undergoing trials and it should be noted that the drug has only be shown to have effect in reducing the need for insulin injections among newly diagnosed people with type 1 diabetes. The drug will now be tested in larger trials.