SCIENTISTS have successfully reversed diabetes in mice by using a combination of two treatments now undergoing human trials. After treatment the condition did not recur in the mice’s lifetime.

While the same may not prove true in human patients, the findings were described as “exciting and important” by an independent expert, Richard Insel, of the US Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Type 1 diabetes, the form that generally develops in childhood, is caused by the immune system turning on the pancreatic cells that produce insulin and destroying them. Only daily injections of insulin can preserve the health of those affected.

A team at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology combined two methods for moderating the effects of the immune system: an anti-CD3 antibody, which calms the immune system, and a vaccine-like peptide that induces regulatory cells to protect the pancreatic cells.

The scientists, led by Matthias von Herrath, have published their findings in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. They report that the result, in mice that are susceptible to type 1 diabetes, was to reverse the symtoms of the disease in the majority of animals treated.

Dr von Herrath said the treatment produced long-lasting results, and that “the diabetes never recurred in the lifespan of the mice”.

Both treatments have been tried individually in human patients, but neither on its own has provided a cure.

The team hopes to start testing both of them in combination in human clinical trials this year.

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