A Blood Test for Type 1 Diabetes?
In a study from the University of Queensland, Australia, scientists have discovered that a cellular pathway, NF-kappa B, that takes place in blood cells, is activated in people with type 1 diabetes.
Professor Ranjeny Thomas and associates, working from UQ's Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine, found that NF-kappa B occurs relatively early in the disease process that causes type 1 diabetes. It is detectable before there is extensive damage to the pancreas.
Dr. Thomas feels that someday, a simple blood test will be able to pinpoint whether a child will develop type 1 diabetes. Combined with advances in type 1 diabetes vaccination studies, this technology would make it possible to vaccinate at-risk kids and possibly prevent diabetes from ever developing.
In the article, Dr. Thomas says, ÏWith various trials of vaccines for diabetes underway, the potential is there to identify and intervene in children at risk of Type 1 diabetes before it occurs."
Read the article from the University of Queensland...
March 10, 2008
By Debra Manzella, R.N.
About.com
