There are approximately 1.25 cases of type one diabetes in the United States. But recently, it was announced that there will be an available vaccine to revise the disease.
The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin is a vaccine used for tuberculosis patients more than 100 years ago. Some medical experts also use this kind of vaccine to treat bladder cancer, which only proves that the vaccine is really safe. Now, its effectivity will be tested to diabetic patients.
Food and Drugs Administration announced during the 75th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, that the vaccine will be tested in 150 patients that have advanced type one diabetes.
Patients who suffer from type one diabetes has a problem in producing enough insulin in the body because the immune system destroys the cell that is responsible for producing insulin. When the body has an excessive amount of T-cells, a problem in the pancreatic islets will occur; where insulin produced. The main role of the vaccine is to remove the T-cells.
The substance tumor necrosis factor (TNF) destroys the T-cells in the system. Patients who have been injected with BCG vaccine twice a month noticed the amount of TNF in the body increased. It also revealed that the dangerous T-cells were eliminated. In addition, some of the patients started to produce their own insulin.
There will be new trial that wil be conducted on people age 18 and 60. Patients who participate in the trial will be injected with the BCG vaccine twice in a span of one month, and then once a year within the period four years.
The director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Immunobiology Laboratory in Boston, Dr. Denise Faustman, says that their aim is a long lasting therapeutic response. The trial is not only for prevention but to make an advance treatment for those who are suffering at the advance stage of the disease.