I got this link in a JDRF email and hadn’t read anything about it previously, thought others might like to read/research it: First-in-Human T1D Vaccine Trial Reports Positive Results: JDRF Report
There’s probably those here fully aware of the effort, but I’d never thought about diabetes from the perspective of being caused by a virus or other illness. Even if it only helps prevent a percentage of those impacted, I wish them well and success.
I wondered when they were going to try something like this.
I was reading on the mRNA vax having the potential to work with / help a LOT of other things that haven’t been possible before.
And yes, to have a vax against T1 would be huge in and of itself.
BUT, wouldn’t this also be a boon for those of us that are already have T1? We could then get the inslet transplants and our body wouldn’t immediately try and kill them like they do now. Well, that is what I was thinking anyways.
Dreaming of course. But heck, got to dream about something I guess.
Is there a link in there to the results of an actual clinical study?
It is only an interim report, not the completed study, which is expected next year?? Not exactly clear.
Honkimaa, A., Kimura, B., Sioofy-Khojine, A. B., Lin, J., Laiho, J., Oikarinen, S., & Hyöty, H. (2020). Genetic adaptation of coxsackievirus B1 during persistent infection in pancreatic cells. Microorganisms , 8 (11), [1790]. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8111790
I don’t think that’s the one they were referencing, although it is certainly very interesting; it’s basically suggesting a mechanism for the autoimmune disorder based on a persistent infection by a particular virus. There doesn’t seem to be any consideration of what a vaccine to that virus might do and, if there were, it would probably be extremely speculative. (I only read the abstract and scanned the full article; the discussion at the end is fascinating, though unrelated to this thread.)
One thing about the paper was particularly thought provoking. I read an article recently (beeb I think) which observed that some high percentage (8% was quoted, that figure is in “Science Daily” in 2010 but it apparently comes from some research in Texas, so who knows.) The paper @chris quoted is mainly about “persistent” infection, which seems to me something like the virus getting trapped inside us and becoming a permanent, or semi-permanent, part of the scene, like the guy in the kitchen after a wild party.
Maybe there is one, single, viral explanation for auto-immune diabetes. The clear hereditary correlation does not refute that; it would just me we are more prone to the particular set of circumstances that causes a, maybe, persistent viral infection to result in the destruction of our beta cells.
All the same the past few months should inform us all that vaccines do not prevent infection. I see nothing, anywhere, to suggest that a vaccine against a particular virus would help in any way with a persistent infection and the resultant immune response caused by that virus. My intuition is that it would make it worse.