Type 1 Diabetes Vaccine Being Tested in Australia

While I was still trying to figure out an unexpected 326 mg/dL postmeal reading following the same premeal reading, the same meal and same insulin dosage, much of the blogosphere was discussing the recent news from Brazil.

Make no mistake, I am interested in the Brazilian development, but for long-termers with type 1 diabetes like me, the news didn't seem to offer much hope of remission, and the treatment itself was a type of chemotherapy akin to that used in cancer treatments which has its own risks and uncomfortable side-effects. Also, the treatment failed in the first patient and the authors suspect it was probably because their beta cell count was too low when they started the treatment. If true, that would render long-standing type 1 patients incurable with this method. But it does confirm that curing this disease is all about the immune system. In fact, a quote from the Los Angeles Times confirms my sentiment:

"We all realize that without addressing the problem at the level of the immune system, we'll never really beat Type 1 diabetes," said Dr. Francisco Prieto, who treats diabetics in his Elk Grove, California, practice.

However, my attention was instead called to a recent development in Australia that was announced on my birthday (April 1).


World first: Connor Ahles and mother Janine. According to the press, he is the first child in the world to be immunized against type 1 diabetes. Picture by Rob Leeson.

A boy named Connor Ahles was reportedly the first child ever to be vaccinated for type 1 diabetes. Connor was found to be at high-risk for type 1 using the methods previously used in the unsuccessful Type 1 Diabetes Prevention Trial 1 (DPT-1), which successfully identified "at risk" patients, although was unsuccessful in preventing the disease. However, the researchers believe that the dosage of insulin may have been too small to make a difference. Regardless, Connor Ahles will take an insulin vaccine through a nasal spray once a week for a year. The vaccine was developed by a team that included Associate Prof Peter Coleman from Royal Melbourne Hospital and Prof Len Harrison from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Apparently, early tests have confirmed that the vaccination can encourage immunity against type 1 diabetes by activating protective immune cells which seem to be in short supply in people with some 80+ autoimmune conditions, including type 1 diabetes. Connor will be joined in the test by 300 children and young adults in the next two years. Hospitals across Australia and New Zealand will be involved.

While I think both developments are promising, I will reserve my excitement for the large-scale clinical trial results on both!