Low blood level of 4 proteins can help diabetics against immune attack

Scientists have now revealed that patients with type 1 diabetes have significantly lower blood levels of four proteins, which helps in protecting their tissue from attack by their immune system.

Dr. Jin-Xiong She, professor at the Medical College of Georgia said that the patient's first-degree relatives, who share some of the high-risk genes but do not have the disease, have high levels of these proteins circulating in their blood.

The findings point toward a sort of protein cocktail that could help at-risk children avoid disease development as well as new biomarkers in the blood that could aid disease diagnosis, prognosis and management.

Author Sharad Purohit said that individuals who have three of the known high-risk genes for type 1 diabetes but high serum levels of these four proteins were less likely to have disease, suggesting that these proteins may provide dominant levels of protection against type 1 diabetes even in a genetically high-risk group.

Researchers claim that cytokines and chemokines could promote or inhibit inflammation and cytokines such as MIP-1beta can do both and the proper mix help keep inflammation in check.

Dr. She said that they were providing evidence that clinical trials with any of these four molecules may work and if they used them in combination, they may work even better.

The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.