Yet another clever way for curing T1D

Treatment
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"Essentially, there is an internal tug-of-war between aggressive T- cells that want to cause the disease and weaker T cells that want to
stop it from occurring," says Dr. Santamaria.

The researchers also developed a unique and inventive nanotechnology-based "vaccine" that selectively boosted the weak white blood T cells, enabling them to effectively counter the damage caused by
their overactive T cell relatives. The vaccine consisted of
nanoparticles (NPs, spheres thousands of times smaller than a single
cell of the body) "coated" with individual T1D-relevant protein
fragments bound to self MHC molecules (pMHC). MHC molecules are used by
another type of white blood cell, called an "antigen presenting cell" to
"present" antigen to T cells as part of all immune responses.

Using a mouse model of T1D, the researchers discovered that their nanovaccine blunted T1D progression in prediabetic mice and restored normal blood sugar in diabetic mice. Further, NPs displaying human
diabetes-relevant complexes restored normal blood sugar levels in a
humanized model of diabetes. The authors pointed out that only the
disease-generated white blood cells responded to the pMHC-NP therapy, so
the treatment would be inconsequential in healthy individuals because
it would not have nonspecific effects on the immune system.



Full story at http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/04/08/nanovaccine.reverses.autoimmunity.without.general.immunosuppression
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When I was diagnosed 30 years ago my doc predicted that a cure might be 5 years away. Without a cure, I might make it to age 40, he said.

I stopped waiting a long time ago. And now I’m well over 40. And planning on making 50, 60, 70, 80, etc :-).

I’m not trying to be cynical but about 20 times a year there’s some newspaper or magazine or TV news story about some new research that’ll cure diabetes. Multiply that 20 by 30 years, and I cannot be anything but cynical.

30 or more years ago, the hope for the cure was about all people had. Today, backed up with good research like the DCCT, a more modern attitude might be that it’s a treatable but uncurable disease that people can live for a good long time with, even after complications set in.