New treatment options to delay type 1 diabetes could present a “new era”
Listen to diabetes healthcare professionals discuss how treatment could delay the onset of the condition.
A recent radio broadcast has highlighted the impact a new treatment available on the NHS could have on delaying the onset of type 1 diabetes.
For more than a century, insulin has been the recognised treatment option available for controlling type 1 diabetes.
Recent guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended introducing teplizumab to delay the onset of stage 3 type 1 diabetes in adults and young people aged eight years and above, with stage 2 type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is always treated with insulin, which has to be injected or infused daily. However, as the condition develops gradually, the new treatment could be used to slow down the onset. These ‘early stage’, ‘pre-symptomatic’, or ‘pre-clinical’ developments are known as stage 1 and stage 2 type 1 diabetes.
Screening tests are used to identify these conditions. A type 1 diabetes diagnosis is recognised at stage 3 – when people start to show symptoms associated with the condition also known as the 4Ts: thirst, toilet (frequent urination), thinner and tiredness (see the DRWF diabetes information resource Signs and symptoms of diabetes).
As we recently reported, the NICE published guidance to recommend NHS reimbursement for teplizumab.
The move would recognise the treatment as the UK’s first licensed condition-modifying treatment to delay the onset of symptomatic type 1 diabetes.
To discuss the development Parth Narendran, a Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Birmingham, and Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist Dr Renuka Dias at Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospital, talked to Inside Health on BBC Radio 4 to reveal how these changes are transforming treatment.
The show also included a case study of Dima and his mum Elena, who explained what it was like to be told that he had tested positive for developing type 1 diabetes and what it was like taking part in the trial for this new drug, teplizumab.
The Inside Health report A new era for type 1 diabetes treatment was originally broadcast on 11th August and can be listened to via BBC Sounds here
Type 1 diabetes is a progressive autoimmune condition that can begin with a “silent” pre-symptomatic stage.
Warning signs include symptoms known as the 4Ts – tiredness, thirst, thinning, toilet (urinating more often).
The condition is growing in prevalence in the UK and can lead to acute and long-term complications, including diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), a potentially life-threatening condition.
Teplizumab is designed to target the immune system’s attack on insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. By modulating the immune response, it can delay the onset of clinical type 1 diabetes in people who are in stage 2.
Clinical trials showed that a single course of teplizumab, which is administered in hospital daily for 14 days, can halve the progression rates to symptomatic type 1 diabetes.
Read more NICE recommends treatment that could delay development of type 1 diabetes in young people
Read more about type 1 diabetes
Read the DRWF diabetes information resource Signs and symptoms of diabetes
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