Vaccine hope for type 1 diabetes viruses

Thursday May 7th, 2020

A vaccine has been developed that could help to stop viruses that attack the autoimmune system and trigger type 1 diabetes, it was announced last night.

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and colleagues in Finland say they hope their finding could provide protection against the disease.

Writing in the latest edition of Science Advances, the team describe focusing on the Coxsackie B (CVB) sub-group of enteroviruses, which are significant in the development of type 1 diabetes.

Coxsackie B comprises six strains that can lead to the common cold, but the strains can also cause more serious infections that lead to diseases including myocarditis and meningitis. It is also believed that CVBs are a pathogenic contributor in the development of type 1 diabetes , although the connection remains hypothetical.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and their colleagues at Tampere University and University of Jyväskylä in Finland say they have now produced a vaccine that protects against all six known strains of CVB.

The vaccine was tested in different animal models and was shown to protect mice infected with CVB from developing virus-induced type 1 diabetes and it also worked well in rhesus monkeys.

Professor Heikki Hyöty from Tampere University said: “The results give important scientific support to an ongoing clinical development program aiming at testing a similar commercial vaccine in humans.”

They hope to use the vaccine in children with a genetic risk profile for type 1 diabetes and if the numbers who develop type 1 diabetes decrease after vaccination or if none develop the disease, it will confirm that CVBs are a triggering environmental factor.

Malin Flodström-Tullberg, professor of type 1 diabetes at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, said: “Our hope is that these trials will show that this kind of vaccine is effective against CVB infections and can be administered to children.

“It would be fantastic if we could prevent the cases of type 1 diabetes that we currently suspect are caused by Coxsackievirus, although the exact number is difficult to estimate. At the same time, the vaccine would give protection against myocarditis, which can have a severe course in both children and adults, and against some types of colds, which regularly keep many away from school and work.”

Stone VM, Hankaniemi MM, Laitinen OH et al. A hexavalent Coxsackievirus B vaccine is highly immunogenic and has a strong protective capacity in mice and non-human primates. Science Advances 6 May 2020

Tags: Child Health | Diabetes | Europe | Flu & Viruses

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