The diabetes 1 vaccine has been created by the staff at Stanford University School of Medicine in collaboration with the colleagues from research centers in the USA, Australia and the Netherlands.
An international team of scientists has developed a vaccine that programs the immune system not to attack the cells that produce insulin. Under the influence of the DNA, other immune cells stop inflammatory response, targeted against the pancreas cells.
The drug was tested on 80 volunteers, who were given intramuscular injections of the vaccine during the period of 12 weeks. As a result, the cells, opposed to proinsulin, disappeared, and the blood levels of peptides increased. This meant that the production and maturation of proinsulin was getting back to norm. No adverse effects on the immune system were identified.
The action of the vaccine lasts for 2 months. The scientists plan to continue testing the vaccine with a larger number of participants in order to increase its validity.
