People with diabetes have trouble managing and using blood glucose, a sugar that serves as fuel for the body. When blood glucose levels rise, islet cells in the pancreas normally make and secrete hormones such as insulin.
According to newsinhealth.nih.gov, in type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks and destroys these insulin-producing cells. People with type 1 diabetes must regularly measure their blood glucose and use insulin injections to maintain their blood sugar levels.
When blood sugar levels drop too low (hypoglycemia), symptoms like shaking or sweating usually warn people to eat or drink to raise their blood sugar levels. However, many people with type 1 diabetes can't tell when their blood sugar is too low. This raises their risk for severe hypoglycemia, which can cause seizures, loss of consciousness, and death
In the new study, the researchers injected a protein normally found on beta cells directly into the patients' lymph nodes, according to livescience. This method has shown the best efficacy so far," at slowing the disease's progression, said Dr. Johnny Ludvigsson, senior professor of pediatrics at Linköping University and the study's lead investigator.
If confirmed in larger trials, the therapy could bring a number of benefits to patients. The ability to make insulin secretion, even if only at very low levels, dramatically decreases people's risk of complications. An immune therapy for type 1 diabetes in the future might combine some of the various approaches that different research teams have tried.