Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC), in the United States, have found a therapy that invests the beginning of type 1 diabetes in mouse models and can help advance efforts to combat disease among human beings.
The study, led by Professor William Ridgway, was presented this Saturday at the 74 scientific sessions of the American Diabetes Association held in San Francisco.
Type 1 diabetes is generally diagnosed in young children and adults and affects about 5 percent of all people with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.
In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce enough insulin, which is essential for glucose metabolism, since without insulin, blood glucose rises, but there is no cure for this pathology, it can only be controlled with theInsulin therapy.
The symptoms of the disease include frequent urination, excessive thirst and strange weight loss even if it is eating more.
Researchers say that the incidence of type 1 diabetes and autoimmunity in general have increased rapidly since the mid -twentieth century, possibly as a result of a lower stimulation of the innate immune system, which triggers autoimmunity in children and young adults.
In type 1 diabetes, autoimmunity causes the body's T cells attacking beta cells insulin producers.
Previously, it has been informed about non -obese diabetic mice that have defects in innate immune cells and that TLR4, a protein encoded by the TLR4 gene, plays a protective role in the prevention of type 1 diabetes.
Ridgway, professor and director of the Immunology, Allergy and Rheumatology Division of the University of California, in the United States, explains that his team of researchers used an antagonistic monoclonal antibody, UT18, to boost the activity of TLR4 and reverse the new diabetesAppearance in a high percentage of non -obese diabetic mice.
"We have shown that through the use of an antibody to stimulate a specific molecule in the innate immune system we can reverse, with a high success rate, diabetes again start in mice that have already begun to develop symptoms of the disease," he emphasizesRidgway.
"The cause of this investment is a maintenance of endocrine pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin. These cells are maintained from the autoimmune attack, which is the distinctive seal of type 1 diabetes," he adds.
The key to reverse type 1 diabetes in mice, according to Ridgway, is the capture of the disease at the beginning, which is typically a very short time window.The time frame would be longer in human beings, but it is still relatively little time for the beginning of the type 1 diabetes of a new start.
Therefore, this expert considers that this approach differs from the majority in the fight against type 1 diabetes because the therapies of your equipment in mice do not interact directly with T cells. "There are two arms of the immune system: the systemadaptive immune and the innate immune system.
Basically, T and B cells are in the adaptive immune system and respond to many different antigens.The innate system tends to give a stereotyped response.We are pointing to a receiver that is mainly in innate immunity cells, such as dendritic cells, "says Ridgway.
"This same molecular TLR4 route operates in humans in many similar ways. Although there are differences, it is possible that this new way to go to the immune system can be tested in humans," says Ridgway.
Although additional studies are required, this expert values thatTherapy could be promising because there is already an anti-TLR4 antagonistic agent approved by the American drug agency and others are in the development phase.
Read more: A group of scientists reverses type 1 diabetes in mice-The digital reason Link
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