Can Nanotechnology Vaccine Therapy Cure Type 1 Diabetes ?
Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disorder. It means that, cells which are responsible for the protection of our body, turn hostile. Insulin is a hormone which brings down the sugar levels in our body. It is produced by the beta cells of pancreas. But in a Type 1 diabetic patient’s body, the natural killer cells called the T cells mistake the beta cells as foreign threats and kill them.
Researchers from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada have developed a vaccine based on nanotechnology which cured Type 1 diabetes in experimental mice and delayed the onset of disease too. The results of the findings are published in the online edition of the scientific journal Immunity. This article tries to gain further insight on this topic.
What the Nanotechnology Vaccine Therapy Does?
The researchers wanted to develop an “antigen-specific” immunotherapy. It means this therapy directly addresses the issue of auto-immune disorder without causing harm to the immune cells which protect our body from external threat. Aggressive T-cells try to cause this disease and weak T-cells inhibit these cells from doing so.
The researchers developed a unique vaccine made up of extremely small particles called the nanoparticles. These particles were coated with small molecules of proteins technically called the Peptides. The peptides binded with the weak T cells with the help of MHC molecules. These peptide-specific weak T-cells did not allow the availability of the protein peptide to any of the aggressive T cells.
As the number of these peptide specific weak T cells increased, they successfully suppressed the attack of the aggressive T cells, which destroy the beta cells, causing Type 1 Diabetes. During the process, the vaccine did not pose any threat to the rest of the immune system. The research was found to successful when tried on humanized models of diabetic mouse too.
Significance of the Research: Nearly 3 million Americans are estimated to have type 1 diabetes. Every year 15,000 fresh cases of this disease is reported. Mostly children and young people below the age of 20 years are affected by this disease. Once diagnosed with this disease, the treatment involves daily manual intake insulin 2-3 times a day.
There are some unavoidable lifestyle changes also made in their lives. Reports of vaccines which can completely cure this disease definitely raises hope in the minds of health care professionals and common public.