The troublemaker in this form of diabetes is the body’s immune system. Instead of attacking viruses and bacteria, it engages in a sort of misguided mission creep, destroying insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas, too. This leads to a decline in insulin production and the inability to regulate blood sugar. But the experimental treatment uses a so-called monoclonal antibody to latch on to T cells in the immune system, preventing them from attacking the insulin-producing cells. Most intriguing, says immunologist Jeffrey Bluestone of the University of California, San Francisco, who engineered the antibody, the T cells then appear to regulate other T cells around them.
Bluestone hopes this will be just one of many new short-term treatments for auto-immune diseases like lupus. If so, one small study could be a glimmer of hope for millions.
