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New drug may slow progression of Type I diabetes

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, March 31, 2004

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The results of an 18-month clinical trial indicate that a new drug helps improve a diabetic's ability to produce insulin, researchers said during the International Diabetes Society meeting March 29 in Cambridge, England.

Researchers also identified a particular type of immune cell that seems to work in conjunction with the drug. They found that the more the drug increased production of the immune cells, the longer the patient was able to maintain insulin production. Researchers are hopeful that this could lead to a new way to help prevent Type 1 diabetes.

The new drug stems from research at the University of California, Los Angeles where mice prone to developing diabetes did not do so when treated with a protein from insulin-producing cells.

Diamyd Medical in Stockholm, Sweden, treated adults who had recently been diagnosed with diabetes during the clinical trial. The company had first noted promising results after the first six months of treating patients with the drug. The final results showed that patients who took the drug had an improved ability to make insulin, compared to patients who received a placebo during the trial.

The Swedish team also found that the drug boosted the number of immune cells that help suppress autoreactive immune responses. Individuals who had the greatest increases of the immune cells after treatment also showed the most improvement in long-term insulin production.

Go to http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?menu=morenews&submenu=health for more information.

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