World-first human clinical trials are underway for a type 1 diabetes drug, developed by Queensland researchers.
The treatment could reduce the need for insulin injections and even potentially stop the disease from developing altogether.
After Brisbane mum-of-two Cecelia Wickstroem Giraldi developed gestational diabetes in pregnancy her blood sugar levels never went back to normal.
“That can be a burden and that can be really difficult,” she said.
Last year she became one of more than 120,000 Australians diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
It’s when the immune system mistakenly sees insulin-making pancreatic cells as something it needs to attack.
“The current treatment is insulin, which really just replaces what’s wrong,” Professor Ranjeny Thomas from the University of Queensland said.
That could be about to change. The mother is among five initial participants of a clinical trial.
Giraldi is being administered with a dose of a drug called ASITI-201 which has been 25 years in the making by University of Queensland researchers.
“Once we got to that point where we could potentially create something against the cause, we just went after it,” Thomas said.
It has already proven successful in mice.
The drug uses protein and cells from the pancreas, and vitamin D to reprogram the immune response, aiming to lessen or even eliminate the need for frequent injections.
“We’re trying to reduce the requirement for insulin by stopping that attack on the cells,” Thomas said.
The clinical trials are already growing and researchers are looking for another 31 participants.
They must be over the age of 18, and have been diagnosed with type one diabetes in the last five years.
