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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Experiments using human blood cells have confirmed the mechanism behind a potential new treatment for people with type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune disorders.
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, have successfully shown that blocking a metabolic pathway that regulates the immune system can effectively eliminate immune cells that react against a patients own tissue.
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Our studies in mice showed that we could selectively kill the defective autoimmune cells that were destroying insulin-producing islets, Denise Faustman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory, was quoted as saying.
This discovery supports the viability of a clinical trial that is already underway to test drugs that can produce the same effect.
Type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune disorders are caused when the bodys immune cells mistakenly attack an individuals own cells.
SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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