Diabetes is an all-encompassing disease that has no cure, or so they say.
Until now everyone thought that type 1 diabetes was an incurable auto-immune disease. As a result, type 1 diabetes has been a devastating diagnosis that has certainly hurt a lot of families.
Researchers have found strong evidence that type 1 diabetes is a bit simpler than they previously thought. Though there is still much work to be done, the latest findings have helped researchers focus their search for a cure.
Type 1 Diabetes and the Immune System
The basic function of the immune system is to attack foreign objects, whether it be a foreign virus or a mutated cell. In this way, the immune system works to eliminate entire cells and organisms from the body so that the body can continue a healthy way.
The old view of diabetes.
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system attacks beta cells, which are responsible for storing and producing insulin. As a result, insulin is no longer available, and type 1 diabetes is developed. The relationship between the immune system and insulin has led researchers to believe that type 1 diabetes is the result of a faulty immune system. New research, however, says that the immune system is working just fine and that the beta cells are the faulty link.
Faulty Beta Cells Cause Diabetes
The medical journal Nature Medicine recently published a study that looked more closely at the manner in which the immune system attacks beta cells. They focused on beta cells as a potential cause of type 1 diabetes after noticing that many cancer patients develop type 1 diabetes after receiving immunotherapy.
The cancer treatment, which focuses on boosting the immune system, directs the body to attack faulty proteins in the body. One such faulty protein has also been previously found in beta cells in patients with type 1 diabetes as well, thus revealing a link between the beta cell function and the immune system response.
So what can you do about it?
Nothing quite yet. As a diabetic, there is nothing to be done because the scientists have yet to find the actual cure. Now that they know where the problem lies, though, they can better focus to find a cure for type 1 diabetes.
This is possibly the most exciting news for type 1 diabetics ever to come out of the lab!
[expand title=”References“]
Science Daily. URL Link. Accessed March 21, 2017.
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