Scientists in the United States have succeeded in stopping diabetes during trials of a new drug.
They treated 12 patients whose insulin production had dropped after being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. At the end of the year-long trial 75 per cent showed little, if any, further loss in their ability to secrete insulin.
Ten of the 12 control patients needed to step up their insulin injections during the course of the trial.
New Scientistreports the results have raised hopes of finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes affects up to one in 200 people and is caused by the loss of insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas.
The drug, developed by the San Francisco Diabetes Centre, is designed to disarm T cells that have been activated to attack islet cells.
The trials were carried out by a team from the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Centre in Columbia. Researchers gave patients a two-week course of injections.
The team is planning a new trial involving more than 80 people with Type 1 diabetes and three two-week courses of injections.
AP