Childhood Diabetes Vaccine On Horizon

Research Shows Reaction To Gene Causes The Disease

WASHINGTON, D.C., Posted 5:32 p.m. May 13, 1999 -- Researchers have taken a critical step toward a vaccine to prevent childhood diabetes.

They have isolated a gene in mice that causes the body to attack and kill tissue that produces insulin, reported The Associated Press.

Researchers at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, used a strain that always gets diabetes, said AP. They removed a gene from the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.

They found that the immune cells left pancreatic cells alone if they didn't have the gene.

One researcher hopes someday to create a vaccine that could desensitize the human body to the protein produced by this gene. He says this could prevent this form of diabetes, known as type one.

The study is in the journal Science.

Compiled by Internet Broadcasting Systems Staff