JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Are you under 30 years of age and have a relative with type 1 diabetes? Perhaps you have type 1 diabetes yourself and have family members that would like to make a contribution towards a cure.

The Type 1 Diabetes Prevention Trial is an exciting study being run across Australia and New Zealand by the Diabetes Vaccine Development Centre (DVDC). Investigators are using an insulin nasal spray vaccine to try to protect people who are genetically at risk of type 1 diabetes.

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Australian scientists prevent onset of type 1 diabetes by making immune cells tolerate insulin-producing cells.

JDRF-funded researchers Ms Eliana Mariño and Dr Shane Grey have demonstrated the cells of the human immune system can be manipulated to prevent type 1 diabetes.

The body’s immune cells, or white blood cells, include B cells and T cells. B cells make antibodies and present ‘antigens’ to T cells, allowing them to recognise and kill invaders.

Previous research by the authors has showed that groups of B cells migrate to the pancreas and pancreatic lymph nodes and tell T cells to kill the cells that produce insulin.

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Scientists believe they may have found a preventative therapy for type 1 diabetes that makes the body tolerate the insulin-producing cells that would normally be attacked and destroyed at disease onset.

PhD student Eliana Mariño and Dr Shane Grey, from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, have demonstrated how a particular molecule may be used to prevent type 1 diabetes in the future. Their findings are published online in the international journal Diabetes.

JDRF’s Research Development Manager said this research, part funded by JDRF, is significant. “These results are impressive and they represent a promising step towards a vaccine for type 1 diabetes.”

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