When regulating glucose, problems such as kidney transplants or diabetic foot would be avoided.
A team of researchers from the Clinical Biochemistry Group of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) works on the identification of proteins that the immune system destroys - and that eliminates the cells that produce insulin - to develop a vaccinethat allows doctors to control type 1 diabetes.
In this variety of the disease, patients lack insulin and today it is still unknown why this occurs."The immune system is confused and recognized as strange cells necessary for the body, and when they are not correct, it destroys them and makes the diabetes not regulate," explains Rubén Varela Calviño, project coordinator.
"Our work is to study what pieces of these proteins - called peptides - are those that the immune system considers strange," he adds.
less insulin
Galician scientists work with GFAP proteins S100ß.Once the peptides were identified, the next step would be to synthesize them chemically -in vitro- and administer them to the patient, "so that the destruction by the immune system would slow down or even stop," argues Varela Calviño.
Being able to keep some of those cells, the patient may need less insulin and/or better control their sugar level."It is a way to stop the incorrect response of the immune system," he clarifies.
These studies have already been tested in animals and in a group of humans in England with other types of proteins.For now none of the patients with whom it has been tested has suffered side effects.
"On the contrary, since it seems to have beneficial effects when conserving small islets of insulin," says the scientist.
Although it has a certain genetic component, type 1 diabetes is not a hereditary disease, which makes detection more difficult.The vaccine that stops or slows down type 1 diabetes could be used as a preventive mode.
"A priori it is not known who will develop the disease and, usually, it is discovered when destruction is already very advanced," says Varela Calviño."When you are thirsty, you urinate a lot and eat and lose weight you have to be alert," he adds.
As for the health system, the project coordinator believes that many complications of the patients could be avoided."This ailment generates renal transplants or amputations of the diabetic foot, so slowing this variation in diabetes many other derived problems could be prevented," he clarifies.
Professor Valera Calviño began this study, in which the Department of Immunology of the University of Vigo and the Meixoeiro Hospital of the Olivic City collaborate, eight years ago in the prestigious King's Collegue in London.