A new trial to test a theory that could prevent type 1 diabetes from developing is being launched in Scotland by researchers from the University of Edinburgh.
The study will contact all 6400 families in Scotland with a family memeber with type 1 diabetes, and will expand into England at a later date. Children aged 5 to 16 who have a sibling or parent with type 1 diabetes will be invited for a blood test to establish whether they are at high risk of developing the disease. Researchers will then examine the impact of administering metformin to young people in the high-risk category.
‘We still have no means of preventing type 1 diabetes, which, at all ages, results from insufficient insulin. We all lose beta cells over the course of our lives, but most of us have enough for normal function,’ said professor Terence Wilkin, who is leading the study. ‘However, if the rate of beta cell loss is accelerated, type 1 diabetes develops, and the faster the loss, the younger the onset of the condition. The accelerator hypothesis talks of fast and slow type 1 diabetes – beta cell loss which progresses at different rates in different people, and appears at different ages as a result.’
Each child taking part in the trial will receive metformin or a placebo initially for four months, during which they will be tested three times to assess how their metabolism and immune system respond. If the trial medication is found to lower beta cell stress effectively, the children will progress into the next stages of the trial.
‘It is possible that a modern environment accelerates the loss of beta cells by overworking and stressing them,’ added Professor Wilkin. ‘As a consequence, this could be contributing to the rising incidence of type 1 diabetes, which is appearing in ever younger age groups. ‘