Type 1 diabetes accounts for around 10% of diabetes cases in the UK.
A new study led by researchers from Cardiff University, King’s College London (KCL), Swansea University and the University of Calgary has found that Janssen’s psoriasis drug Stelara (ustekinumab) shows promise for treating childhood diabetes.
Published in Nature Medicine The study, funded by a partnership between the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, found that Stelara was effective in treating the early stages of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in children and adolescents.
T1D, which accounts for around 10% of diabetes cases in the UK, occurs when the pancreas does not produce insulin, or produces too little insulin.
Since 2009, the immunotherapy Stelara has been used to treat psoriasis, a skin disease characterized by flaky patches of skin that affects about 60 million people worldwide, as well as other immune disorders such as psoriatic arthritis, severe Crohn’s disease and severe ulcerative colitis.
In the study, researchers tested Stelara in 72 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 who had recently developed T1D.
Researchers discovered that Stelara preserves key insulin-producing cells known as Th17 cells, while also identifying the specific immune cells that cause this destruction, enabling precise, targeted treatment to maximize effectiveness and minimize side effects.
“Although (Th17) cells make up only one in 1,000 blood immune cells, they appear to play a key role in destroying insulin-producing cells, which is why (Stelara) has so few side effects,” explained KCL’s Professor Tim Tree.
Additionally, after 12 months of using Stelara, researchers found that levels of C-peptide, which indicates the body is producing insulin, increased by 49%.
Dr Peter Taylor, from Cardiff University’s Institute of Systems Immunity, said: “With a simple finger-prick antibody test, we could now detect children who will develop type 1 diabetes years before they need insulin.”
“Such screening, combined with early treatment with (Stelara) appears to be a very promising approach to prevent the need for insulin.”
Further clinical trials are needed to confirm whether Stelara can treat type 1 diabetes and to determine which patients would benefit most from this treatment.
