By nanovacuna, a group of researchers from the University of Calgary (Alberta, Canada) has successfully managed to cure type 1 diabetes in mice and delay the onset of it to those who had risk of acquiring it.
The group is led by Dr. Pere Santamaria who is a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine , University of Calgary. This Catalan scientist residing in Canada, has shown this data at the XXI Congress of the Spanish Society of Diabetes, held in Barcelona in April. The results of this study have been published in the online edition of the journal Immunity, belonging to the Cell on 8 April. The study was funded primarily by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (principal charity dedicated to fund and support diabetes research worldwide), the Research Council of Natural Sciences and Engineering Canada and the Canadian Diabetes Association .
Diabetes type 1, the suffering 18 million people worldwide and occurs when certain white blood cells (T cells) mistakenly attacks and destroys the beta cells that produce the hormone insulin in the pancreas is, necessary to regulate high levels of blood glucose.
The researchers were seeking to stop the autoimmune response that causes type 1 diabetes without harming the immune cells that protect us from infections. And they discovered that our body has a mechanism that seeks to stop development of autoimmune diseases. Translating it to diabetes, it is as if a small internal fight in the aggressive cells that want to cause the disease (T cells) and other weak attempt to stop (beta cells). Thus, the research group produced a single vaccine using nanoparticles of gold (see photo), coated with proteins (called molecules MHC) that are recognized by the immune system and stimulate the part of the system that allows us to defend ourselves against infections.
In mice in which the vaccine was tested, we observed two momentous achievements. First, the mice were predisposed to type 1 diabetes, not developed on the other hand, which had already developed, pancreas recovered its ability to produce insulin and may well stop the disease at the time that appears.
Nanovacuna Santamaria believes this could begin to be applied to humans in phase I clinical trials in 2012. And most importantly, if the paradigm is true based on this nanovacuna, then it could also apply to chronic immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis.
