Home » Could an existing medicine reverse the steps that lead to type 1 diabetes?
Could an existing medicine reverse the steps that lead to type 1 diabetes?
Professor Eoin McKinney’s Root Causes Programme Grant project
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Professor Eoin McKinney’s Root Causes Programme Grant project
Professor Eoin McKinney and his team at University of Cambridge have discovered ‘signatures’ of immune cell changes seen only in people who later develop type 1 diabetes. In this Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge project, they will search for existing medicines that can rewrite this signature to prevent type 1 diabetes.
Understanding how type 1 diabetes develops is vital for preventing the condition. Researchers are looking at the biological processes that lead to the immune system dysfunction in type 1 diabetes and ways to block or reverse these.
One scientist working on this is Professor Eoin McKinney, with funding from the Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge. His team has used machine learning to analyse signatures in cell samples from hundreds of people who went on to develop type 1 diabetes. These signatures show patterns of changes in immune cells, which are linked to the development of type 1 diabetes.
There are also similar signatures that show how cells in the body are changed by drugs. There are large data banks of these drug signatures for the many thousands of medicines prescribed for all sorts of conditions. Professor McKinney will use this vast library of drug signatures to search for a way to reverse the changes to the immune system that lead to type 1 diabetes.
The researchers will hunt for matches between the type 1 diabetes signatures they’ve discovered and the drug signatures that have been mapped for individual medicines. When they find a pattern in a drug signature that complements a pattern in their type 1 signature, the medicine has the potential – in theory – to reverse the changes and prevent the condition.
Professor McKinney said: “By collaborating with international groups, we have generated detailed maps of immune cell changes occurring from the earliest stages of T1D through to diagnosis. Now, we plan to use that information to find new treatments that might prevent progression, by matching changes seen before type 1 diabetes to those produced by commonly used medicines. By finding a match, we hope to identify which drugs might be most easily used to reverse or stop disease progression.”
Professor McKinney will then check if the drugs work in practice by examining how they change immune responses. First in human cells and then in mice, gathering as much information as possible about each drug. This means that when it comes to testing in people, only medicines with the highest chance of success will make the cut.
The team expects to have a candidate medicine ready to give to people at high risk of type 1 diabetes in a prevention trial much faster than usual. This is because this medicine would have already been through extensive safety testing for its original use. So, if the lab tests are positive, there shouldn’t be anything standing in the way of a clinical trial.
The first signs of type 1 immune attack can be detected years before symptoms develop. Finding a medicine that can fend off the condition will give people the chance to protect themselves for longer. And by using an existing medicine – rather than developing a new drug – this breakthrough could come years or decades sooner.
Professor McKinney said: “By selecting candidate treatments rationally based on a match with type 1 data, we will stand the best possible chance of finding a safe and effective approach to stop the condition with real impact for patients everywhere.”