For men at high risk for type 1 diabetes, the immunotherapy drug teplizumab may provide hope. New research indicates that the drug delays the onset of type 1 diabetes by an average of 2 years in people who are at high risk for the disease.
Why study teplizumab?
A team of researchers from Yale University wanted to look at the effects of the anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody Teplizumab. The drug works by targeting effector T cells, which destroy insulin-producing beta cells in people with type 1 diabetes.
Since previous research had already shown that the drug reduces the loss of beta cells in people who just developed type 1 diabetes, the scientists wanted to know if it could also delay the onset of the disease.
For the study, the research team looked at the effect of teplizumab on 76 people between the ages of 8 and 49 who had relatives with type 1 diabetes, in addition to at least two kinds of autoantibodies associated with diabetes. All of the participants had abnormal blood sugar tolerance. The participants were split into two groups; a control group received a placebo and the other group received teplizumab for two weeks.
How teplizumab delays type 1 diabetes
By the end of the trial, 72% of the people in the control group had developed type 1 diabetes but only 43% of the participants taking teplizumab had developed the disease.
In addition, those participants in the control group who developed diabetes did so over a median period of 24 months. Those in the group that took teplizumab and developed type 1 diabetes, however, did so after a median of 48 months.
“The difference in outcomes was striking,” says Lisa Spain, Ph.D., a project scientist at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. “This discovery is the first evidence we’ve seen that clinical type 1 diabetes can be delayed with early preventative treatment. The results have important implications for people, particularly youth who have relatives with the disease, as these individuals may be at high risk and benefit from early screening and treatment.”
