Scientists at Stanford University have created a useable vaccine for Type 1 Diabetes mellitus. This disease affects many people around the globe by decreasing the amount of insulin produced by the pancreas, causing high blood sugar in patients. Type 2 diabetes (aka "adult onset" diabetes) is caused by the body's inability to use insulin properly, whereas type 1 diabetes ("juvenile" diabetes) results from the body's inability to produce insulin. The lack in insulin in type 1 patients has been attributed to the destruction of insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas by the body's own immune system
Traditionally, autoimmune diseases such as these have been difficult to treat, because it involves manipulating the entire immune system, the body's line of defense against infectious agents and cancer. The patient's body has developed the unfortunate trait of fighting against itself in these cases and that is tough to rectify. This new "vaccine" developed by researchers works in reverse of the normal convention; instead of training the immune system against a virus or bacteria, the vaccine suppresses the part of the immune system that destroys beta cells while leaving the rest of the immune system intact. This is a promising development not only in the path to curing type 1 diabetes, but also to developing cures for other auto-immune diseases as well.
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