JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

A move towards individualised insulin therapy targets

After extensive discussion in Australia and overseas, Australian diabetes health professionals have released a new position statement on blood sugar targets for people with type 1 diabetes. Following the results of the Diabetes Control and Complications trial, the ideal target of a HbA1c of 7% was set across the board.

Recent research has suggested that one size may not fit all and to address this, the Australian Diabetes Society now officially recommends that people with severe hypoglycemia or hypoglycemia unawareness should set their HbA1c targets at 8% or less.

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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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A recent study shows that a new type of stem cell transplantation may help people with type 1 diabetes become insulin free and increase C-peptide levels.

Researchers have used a transplant of a patient’s own treated blood cells to increase and preserve beta cell function in young people recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

The research team, from the US and Brazil, hoped that if they intervened early enough they could wipe out and then rebuild the body’s immune system by using stem cells, preserving a reservoir of beta cells and allowing them to regenerate.

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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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