Type 1 Diabetes Treatment Includes Powdered Oral Insulin? Prevents Risks & Induces Protective Immune Response

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Children who took oral powdered insulin developed a protective immune response that prevents type 1 diabetes disease from developing.

The new study published last April 21 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) indicates that ingesting insulin every day is proven safe and may also prevent type 1 diabetes development by building the body's tolerance. If the results can be replicated on a larger scale and for a longer duration, this could potentially help young children who are at high risk for the disease, according to HealthDay.

"We have introduced a relatively new paradigm, which is to actively expose the body to one of its own proteins before the body has a chance to see it as foreign and to eliminate it like a virus, something which happens in children who develop type 1 diabetes," said Ezio Bonifacio, the lead author and director at Germany's DFG Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus is an autoimmune disease which destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Children and adults who suffer from this condition are unable to normally produce insulin, a substance that helps convert food into glucose to enter cells to produce enough energy needed by the body. Type 1 diabetes patients get their replacement insulin through injections or an insulin pump. Managing the disease is difficult because the insulin needed by the body changes daily which is why the authors are finding ways to prevent the disease from developing.

For the study, the researchers looked at children from ages two to seven who were considered high-risk for their strong family background of type 1 diabetes.

There were 25 children in all, and 15 were given doses of oral insulin in their food while 10 were given a placebo. The group who received insulin developed an immune response against the disease, according to Healthline.

"This is the first time we are seeing any sort of response by the immune system to orally administered insulin in children," said Bonifacio.

"Feeding insulin to children who have a high genetic risk for starting the process that eventually leads to type 1 diabetes can actually have a vaccine-like effect that tickles the immune system of these children in a way that we think is protecting them from getting type 1 diabetes." he added.

A blood test can determine which child needs the insulin. Bonifacio said that the disease develops beginning six months to three years old.

"Oral exposure at the right doses is known to teach the immune system to make protective responses," Bonifacio said. "We think that the reason that some of the genetically at-risk children start the disease process do so because their immune system didn't see enough insulin early enough and in the wrong place."