Antibody Used To Prevent Type 1 Diabetes

Filed in archive Research on January 16, 2007

New research seems to offer hope of preventing Type 1 diabetes in the future, at least in mice. Will it work for humans, too?

In this study, the Pitt researchers treated non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice with an antibody - a type of protein produced by the immune system that recognizes and helps fight infections and other foreign substances in the body - directed against a receptor known as CD137 on the surface of a type of immune cell called T-cells. Treating NOD mice with the anti-CD137 antibodies significantly suppressed the development of diabetes, whereas most of the control mice developed diabetes by the time they were six months old.

With more than 700,000 cases of Type 1 diabetes in america alone, this is certainly an exciting possibility.