The trial is looking for more volunteers to reach their goal of 12,000! To participate in the initial screening test, you will need to be aged between 4 – 30 years with a relative with type 1 diabetes. This first step will be a free blood test for antibodies that may indicate a future risk of getting type 1 diabetes.

For more information about participating in this trial and to help research towards a type 1 diabetes vaccine, please visit the newly relaunched website: www.stopdiabetes.com.au.

The new website features profiles of some of the trial participants, and explains how their regular participation contributes towards the search for type 1 prevention. You can also connect with the trial on Facebook and Twitter.

JDRF is committed to improving the lives of those living with type 1 diabetes, and ultimately curing the disease. We encourage our community to support this trial and register your interest!

Type 1 diabetes is caused when a persons own immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Whilst the precise trigger of this attack is still unproven, researchers do know that there are certain immune cells that play a more important role than others. The challenge is to target the “bad” cells without harming the good cells that protect us from day-to-day infections.

Publishing their results this week in the international journal Immunity, JDRF-funded researchers from the University of Calgary have done just that. They have developed a vaccine that when tested in a mouse model of diabetes reduced the aggressive immune attack on beta cells by boosting the number of protector cells.

The first step of this program was to develop a way to safely increase protector cell numbers, and they did this using an exciting new scientific discipline known as nanotechnology. Nanotechnology involves the intricate manipulation of tiny particles that measure between 1-100 nanometres in size – equivalent to one billionth of a metre or 1/100,000 the width of a normal sheet of paper.

In this case, the researchers created a “nanovaccine” involving tiny spheres especially coated with a protein specific to type 1 diabetes. When introduced into the immune system of diabetic mice, these spheres triggered the production of good protector cells and reduced the number of bad aggressive cells.

The end result was that the nanovaccine prevented diabetes in a pre-diabetic mouse model and restored normal blood glucose levels in diabetic mice.

Whilst the lead researcher Dr Pere Santamaria says the results are not immediately transferable to humans, research is already underway into understanding what needs to be done to translate this knowledge into clinical trials.

The development of a safe and effective vaccine for type 1 diabetes is a top priority for JDRF internationally, and there are many other similar programs making progress in this area around the world.

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.

If successful, it will prevent or postpone the onset of type 1 diabetes. At the very least, participation in this non-invasive trial will provide researchers with valuable information about the processes involved in the development of type 1 diabetes.

To find out about the eligibility criteria to participate call 1300 138 712 or go to www.stopdiabetes.com.au for more information.

A team of researchers from Yale University in the US have leant further support to this hypothesis by demonstrating that a certain strain of research mice were far more likely to develop type 1 diabetes when raised in a special germ-free environment as opposed to normal laboratory conditions.

It appears that the mice in the germ-free environment were more susceptible because they had not been exposed to a type of harmless bacteria that lives in the human intestine and commonly found on non-sterile services. Previous research into other disorders has shown there to be interactions between intestinal microbes and the immune system and this research suggests that these interactions may be behind why some people develop type 1 diabetes and others do not.

Whilst the US research suggests that exposure to germs is good for us, JDRF-funded researchers in the UK have revealed a very different result. A recent discovery by scientists based in Brighton has found a definitive link between the incidence of type 1 diabetes and infection with common tummy bugs known as enteroviruses.

Researchers examined the pancreas tissue of people who had passed away not long after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and compared it with non-diabetic pancreata. They found that the beta cells found in more than half of the diabetic pancreases were infected with enteroviruses. Conversely, enteroviral infection was rare in the non-diabetic pancreas.

In most people, infection by an enterovirus results in symptoms similar to the common cold or gastric upset. This research suggests that it may also be playing a role in the autoimmune process whereby the immune system labels beta cells as ‘foreign’, resulting in type 1 diabetes.

Both these exciting research breakthroughs have given us a significantly greater understanding of what can trigger the onset of type 1 diabetes and may possibly lead to the development of a therapy or vaccine to prevent the condition.

Nature 455(7216):1109-13
Diabetologia 52(6):1143-51