University launches five studies for prevention and treatment of diabetes

The University of Birmingham have announced the launch of five new major studies aimed at improving the prevention, treatment and management of type 1 diabetes - with a particular focus on children and young adults.

The new studies include:

• The ELSA Study: Led by Professor Parth Narendran (pictured), the ELSA Study (EarLy Surveillance for Autoimmune diabetes) will see researchers interviewing families, doctors, nurses and schools, to determine if, and how, the UK should develop a testing and monitoring programme that will identify children at risk of type 1 diabetes. The ELSA Study is being funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR.

• Diabetes and health inequalities: Through £1.9m funding from NIHR, Professor Tim Barrett 's team will ask children and young people with diabetes and their families from poorer and/ or ethnic minority backgrounds how language issues, feelings, income, living conditions and food availability affect how they manage diabetes.They will identify new ways to make diabetes management easier and more successful, and will test these systems in trials involving NHS hospitals.

• Immunotherapies for diabetes: The greatest barrier to the development of specific immunotherapies for type 1 diabetes is that we currently do not understand the mechanism of how immunotherapies switch off the immune response to our own proteins. A clinical study led by Professor David Wraith will be carried out in collaboration with Cardiff University. It will test a new peptide developed by the University of Birmingham. The new peptide has the potential to control the T-cell immune response in people who are either at risk of developing type 1 diabetes or are newly diagnosed. This will be the first in-depth analysis of the molecular changes responsible for antigen-specific immunotherapy in type 1 diabetes.

• Sight loss and diabetes: Two separate projects led by Dr Jose Romero Hombrebueno will explore the function of mitochondria, which generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell's biochemical reactions. The researchers will examine the role of mitochondrial function in both the development of multiple health conditions as the consequence of type 1 diabetes, and also the role it plays in developing diabetic retinopathy - an eye condition that can cause sight loss and blindness in people who have diabetes.

• Exercise and type 1 diabetes: Led by Dr Alex Wadley and funded by the Rosetrees Trust, this research will examine how a home-based exercise programme impacts autoimmunity in patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. The project will evaluate whether exercise slows the progression of type 1 diabetes by altering the number and activity of white blood cells in the circulation that have the potential to attach to, enter and degrade the pancreas. Although evidence supports a role for exercise to promote general health and wellbeing in patients with type 1 diabetes, this project aims to provide novel evidence that exercise can directly slow the progression of the disease upon diagnosis.

Parth Narendran, Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Birmingham 's Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, said: “The UK has one of the highest incidences of type 1 diabetes in the developed world, at 25 per 100,000 per year, and type 1 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes in children. It occurs when cells that make insulin don 't work as they should, and people with the condition have to self-inject insulin for their entire lives.

“Studies have recently shown that some medicines can safely delay people getting type 1 diabetes. Some countries, such as the US and Australia, already have surveillance systems to identify people at risk of developing type 1 diabetes and to offer them participation in prevention trials and also to reduce their chances of developing type 1 diabetes as an unexpected emergency. The UK does not have such a system in place.

“Until now, nobody in the UK has explored whether parents and children would welcome such a system, and how it would work. Through ELSA we will potentially be able to change NHS healthcare policy which would result in the early detection and prevention of this condition and its associated long-term complications. ”