Roland Tisch’s group has discovered an immunotherapy that appears to be able to reverse the development of Type I diabetes in mice…
Roland Tisch’s group has discovered an immunotherapy that appears to be able to reverse the development of Type I diabetes in mice. Recent treatments by other labs have focused on antibody therapies that destroy immune cells that have infiltrated the pancreas and started the destruction of the cells responsible for producing insulin (Islets of Langerhans beta cells). This treatment has shown only limited efficacy. However, in data recently published in Diabetes, scientists in the Tisch lab focused on using antibodies that bind to CD4 and CD8 T cells but do not destroy these cells. This treatment appears to induce the destructive T cells to leave the pancreas as well as induce a protective response by pancreatic immunoregulatory T cells. In a short course treatment (two doses) of “non-depleting antibodies,” 80% of mice not only underwent disease remission, but continued to be disease-free for the remainder of the study. For more information on this study, click here.