New type 1 diabetes therapy discovered

BOSTON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists have found a triple combination therapy that includes inflammation reduction can play a key role in type 1 diabetes treatment.

The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center researchers determined the therapy consisting of tolerance-inducing and anti-inflammatory properties is successful in abolishing adverse autoimmunity against insulin-producing cells in a mouse model of Type 1 diabetes.

The findings also suggest a previously unrecognized role for inflammation in the disease.

"Type 1 diabetes is known to develop as a consequence of autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells," said senior author Dr. Terry Strom. "But in addition to the long-recognized role of T-cell-dependent immune-system-mediated islet destruction, this work reveals for the first time that a form of inflammation in fat and muscle (also acts to) prevent insulin from disposing blood glucose into tissues that require glucose."

The study -- which included Maria Koulmanda, Prabhakar Putheti, Hang Shi, Ejona Budo, Susan Bonner-Weir, and Drs. Xin Xiao Zheng, Nicolas Degauque, Zhigang Fan, Jeffrey Flier, Hugh Auchincloss Jr. and Andi Qipo -- appears in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.