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Diabetes vaccine is 'significant step'
June 28, 2013
Scientists believe they could reverse type 1 diabetes.
Scientists believe it could be possible to reverse type 1 diabetes by training a patient's immune system to stop attacking their body.
Experts have described the results of the early trial as a "significant step" in the right direction.
A study in 80 patients, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, showed that the vaccine could be able to retrain their immune system.
Normally a vaccine teaches the immune system to attack the problem that causes diseases, however, researchers at the Stanford University Medical Centre used a vaccine with the opposite effect.
Patients with type 1 diabetes find their immune system destroys beta cells in the pancreas, which means the body can't produce enough insulin.
Professor Lawrence Steinman said the vaccine is a new concept that is shutting off specific immune system responses.
"We're very excited by these results, which suggest that the immunologist's dream of shutting down just a single subset of dysfunctional immune cells without wrecking the whole immune system may be attainable," he continued.
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