Type 1 Diabetes Research

Diabetes research focuses on new approaches to prevent, cure, and treat diabetes. The following diabetes research focuses on prevention, cure, and treatment.

Prevention

Insulin

The National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International are working together to support diabetes research. Several studies are investigating if insulin can be used to prevent the development of type 1 diabetes in people with impaired insulin secretion who have a high risk of developing type 1 diabetes in 5 years:

One study found that low-dose insulin injections given to people with a 50% or greater risk do not prevent them from developing type 1 diabetes.
A current study is investigating the ability of oral insulin to protect people at a 25% to 50% risk from developing type 1 diabetes.

Cure

Genetic approaches

Gene identification
There isn't a single gene that causes a person's immune system to kill the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. Although several genes have been identified, not everyone who inherits the genes develop type 1 diabetes. Identifying all of the genes is the first step in predicting who will develop type 1 diabetes and ultimately lead to a cure.
Genetic manipulation
Genetic manipulation studies are investigating ways to modify normal cells to become insulin-producing beta cells. The goal is to insert a human insulin gene into fat or muscle cells, and then transplant the cells into the pancreas of people with type 1 diabetes. The hope is that the transplanted cells will start producing insulin normally.
Stem cells
Scientists are researching the use of stem cells to cure type 1 diabetes. Stem cells are unspecialized cells that can grow into specialized cells, such as the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas (which are destroyed in type 1 diabetes). One approach gathers stem cells from mothers of children with type 1 diabetes, grows the cells into functioning pancreatic cells that produce insulin, and transplants the cells in her child. Another approach removes a person's own blood stem cells, treats the cells to preserve their beta-cell function, and then transplants the treated cells back into the person.

Pancreas transplantation alternatives

Artificial pancreas
Researchers are working to perfect an artificial pancreas that calculates the insulin dose and delivers insulin to the body.
Islet cell transplantation
Islet cell transplantation inserts islet cells from a donor pancreas into the pancreas of a person with type 1 diabetes. The challenge to this approach is finding a sufficient number insulin cells and keeping them alive.

Vaccine

Researchers are testing a vaccine that may stop the destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic cells.

Treatment

Avoiding short-term complications

Children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes are already experiencing fewer short-term complications due to recent improvements in diabetes control, such as:

Frequent blood sugar monitoring
Improved insulin delivery systems
New insulin formulations

Insulin delivery systems

New insulin delivery systems being researched include:

Buccal (under-the-tongue) insulin
Oral insulin
Transdermal insulin (through the skin using a patch)

Restoring blood flow

Peripheral vascular disease reduces circulation in a person's extremities. Researchers are developing a laser technique that uses ultraviolet energy to restore blood flow to blocked blood vessels. If caught in time, improved blood flow may prevent the need for amputation.

The pancreatic protein Pdx1

Pdx1 (insulin promoter factor 1) is a pancreatic protein involved in the production of insulin. Pdx1 accelerates the regeneration of pancreatic cells that have been destroyed by type 1 diabetes. The insulin blood levels of the mice with type 1 diabetes returned to near normal levels two weeks after being treated with Pdx1. Scientists are now researching the use of Pdx1 as a treatment for type 1 diabetes in humans.

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