An arthritis medicine that can slow down the progression of diabetes is called “life-changing”.
The autoimmune condition occurs when a patient’s body incorrectly attacks cells that produce the blood sugar lowering hormone insulin.
Patients are therefore forced to inject insulin at least once a day to control the amount of glucose in their circulation.
Read more: Signs of adulthood type 2 diabetes visible in eight-year-old children
A study from University College London (UCL) has raised hopes after the rheumatoid arthritis drug abatacept maintained the pancreas’ ability to produce insulin.
A third of the patients who participated in a two-year trial did not experience any progression to their condition while on the medication, leaving the team optimistic that it could be available in about three years.
“We’ve found some news and if it stops with further testing it’s a new paradigm that could potentially be really important,” study author Professor Lucy Walker told the i.
Nearly 4 million people in the UK were diagnosed with diabetes in 2019. The majority (90%) had type 2, which is linked to obesity and old age.
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About 8% of the patients had type 1, while the remaining 2% were diagnosed with rarer forms of the disease.
In the US, 34.2 million – 10.5% of the population – had diabetes in 2018. Of those, almost 1.6 million had type 1.
Poorly controlled diabetes can lead to serious complications such as nerve damage, heart attacks and blindness.
‘Enormous step forward’ in treating diabetes
Abatacept suppresses an aspect of the immune system called T cells, which attack the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
In 1999, UCL scientists identified signals that monitored “follicular helper T-cell” behavior, after which they later discovered that these cells appeared in high numbers in those with type 1 diabetes.
Abatacept is known to suppress the excessive immune response that occurs in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Read more: Patients with type 2 diabetes are 50% more likely to die prematurely
From the back of their results, UCL scientists hope that the drug will slow the progression of type 1 diabetes by even longer than the two years it was studied. Trials should be conducted to confirm this, they added.
The team also believes that patients at any stage of the disease could benefit, only those newly diagnosed were enrolled for the trial.
Abatacept is not thought to be effective in type 2 diabetes, which occurs when the insulin that is released does not work properly, causing blood sugar levels to continue to rise.
For unclear reasons, abatacept was found to be effective in one-third of participants with type 1 diabetes.
Blood samples analyzed using artificial intelligence allowed the scientists to discover the T-cell makeup of the different patients, allowing them to measure how effective the medicine might be.
“Early tests in people with type 1 diabetes have found that the drug is not suitable for routine use because the response is highly variable; some people benefit a lot, while others do not at all, ”said Professor Walker.
“Forward can tell who is likely to respond may show interest in this therapy for people with diabetes.”
The scientists are reportedly in talks with the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca about conducting a larger clinical trial. They hope that abatacept will be available to patients in three to five years.
Elizabeth Robertson, from Diabetes UK – who funded the study, said: “We were able to see this treatment licensed quickly and this could be life-changing. [for] many of the 10,000 children and adults diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the UK each year.
“This would be a huge leap forward in how we treat the disease and change lives.”
Dr Janaka Karalliedde of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London agreed, adding that there are always “non-responders” among patients.
By identifying markers that suggest an individual will respond, those who can benefit the most can be targeted, he added.
