The vaccine against BCG tuberculosis can help reverse type 1 diabetes. It is the main conclusion of an investigation by the Denise Faustman group, director of the Immunology Laboratory of the Massachusetts General Hospital, from Harvard University, and expertin the study of autoimmune diseases and reactive T cells.It is a late effect but at least extends for five years.This finding can be a repositioning of a vaccine that is practically no longer used in Europe and an outstanding advance in the management of diabetes, a disease that affects almost 8% of adults and whose incidence increases every year.
Denise Faustman's group published the results of a first pilot study a few years ago in the scientific journal PLOS and recently those of a broader clinical trial have come to light with greater follow -up in NPJ Vaccines, publication of the Nature Group.Yesterday he presented his work in the Interactive Workshop of Pediatric Infectology, which every year organizes in Compostela the pediatrics service directed by Federico Martinón in the University Hospital Complex of Santiago (Chus).
Faustman has studied 200 patients diagnosed with diabetes for more than a decade, who followed a pattern of two doses instead of one, which is the usual pattern of the vaccine.In the pilot he discovered that there was an improvement of glucose levels.The results were not conclusive, but sufficiently suggestive to continue investigating.
With the second study, it was evidenced that the reason that relevant data was not left was that the follow -up was done only two years, since the most beneficial effect with respect to diabetes occurs precisely that period from vaccination."The five -year follow -up that was carried out later showed that glucose levels are normalized from the third year and are maintained up to 6 or 7 years later," says Federico Martinón, who advances the transcendence that this discovery can have: “It would beA different indication of a vaccine with more than 100 years, which is a well -known, safe and cheap product, and that could have an important impact on a disease such as diabetes, which has a great morbidity and mortality. ”
In Santiago, Denise Faustman has also presented the content of what will be another article that his group plans to publish and that refers to the mechanism by which the vaccine produces this effect.Diabetes is a metabolic autoimmune disease characterized by the organism's inability to produce insulin.Essentially, the vaccine causes an epigenetic reprogramming, modifying the methylation and metabolism of the cells.In this way, the cells of diabetic patients are reprogrammed to better metabolize sugar, there is an increase in aerobic glycolysis, reducing the need for insulin and normalizing the patient's situation.
Currently, Faustman has started another clinical trial with different diabetic groups, including patients with short evolution and children.
Heterologists
This work is in the line of research that focuses on the heterologous properties of the BCG tuberculosis vaccine.In fact, the team led in Santiago Federico Martinón showed that he avoids hospital admissions for respiratory infections and sepsis.
Another Italian group is investigating its ability to prevent multiple sclerosis outbreaks."The epigenetic effect that the vaccine has reset the immune mechanism of the individual and, on the one hand, defends him from other infections and, on the other, helps to send autoimmune problems such as diabetes," explains this expert.[[ERROR-TRANS]] Link
