Immunotherapy

Research is on-going to develop treatments that use the body's own immune system to impede or prevent beta-cell destruction. Drugs that suppress the immune system, azathioprine and cyclosporine, which are used for other autoimmune diseases, have not proven to be beneficial. One approach has patients eating forms of insulin or GAD, the beta-cell protein that might be involved in triggering the immune system's attack. The premise behind this treatment is that the immune system is more tolerant of proteins that are eaten than of those that enter the blood stream directly. Theoretically, once the immune system gets used to the oral form, it will cease to attack the resident GAD or insulin proteins in the body. Investigators are also testing antibodies that specifically block certain molecules that are known to attack beta-cells in mice with inflamed pancreases.

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