DOCS CLOSING IN ON VACCINE FOR DIABETES ; Type 1 Jab to Be Tested on People

A CURE for Type 1 diabetes moved a step closer yesterday when scientists announced the first human trials of a vaccine.

One expert said the news was exciting – but warned it could be a decade before any significant progress is seen.

More than 70 patients have already been recruited to take part in the trial which will start in August next year.

Lead researcher Professor Mark Peakman, of Kings College, London, said: ‘It is very exciting that we are now taking this work forward into patients.

‘The early trials will tell us whether the vaccine is safe.

‘We will then proceed to look at its effect on patients who have just developed diabetes and see whether the disease process can be halted.

‘Following this, it would be logical to test the vaccine in individuals at risk of diabetes, to see whether prevention is possible.’

But he added: ‘These trials take some years to complete, so it may be five to 10 years before we see real progress.’

Currently, people with Type 1 diabetes, the most serious form of the condition, need daily injections of synthetic insulin because the pancreas stops producing its own version of the chemical.

Type 1 diabetes affects about 300,000 people in Britain.

The new vaccine, which has already taken 10 years to develop, involves injecting a protein which stops the body destroying the cells that produce insulin, with trials proving successful in mice.

The more common Type 2 diabetes, which tends to affect the old and overweight, is increasingly being seen in kids due to the rise in childhood obesity.

Diabetes UK are supporting the trials which are being jointly run by Kings College and Bristol University.

Georgina Slack, head of research at Diabetes UK, said: ‘A hundred years ago, Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence.

‘Now we’re seeing new approaches in research which are improving the chances of providing a cure.

‘The prospect of finding a way of stopping the body from attacking itself and causing Type 1 diabetes is the holy grail of diabetes research.’