A new cell therapy is to be tested for the first time on people with Type 1 Diabetes. If the researchers succeed, it could pave the way for a cure for the disease.

Most people with Type 1 Diabetes today are treated with insulin via a syringe or pump.

Patients who have very severe type 1 diabetes can also undergo a transplant with insulin-producing cells to get better control of the disease. The treatment, which is not suitable for everyone, means that the patient needs to take immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of his life, which often causes severe side effects.

– That type of drug depresses the immune system, so the recipients become very susceptible to infection, and there is an increased risk of cancer, an increased risk of kidney failure – quite a lot of complications, says Per-Ola Carlsson, professor of diabetic diseases at the University Hospital of Uppsala, Sweden.

The researchers will now test a new treatment, where the insulin-producing cells have instead been genetically modified not to be detected by the immune system. It is the first time that this has been done on humans.

– If you could transplant without giving this type of medicine, then all individuals with Type 1 Diabetes are suitable to receive a curative treatment. It would be amazing.

Two test patients with severe Type 1 Diabetes are included in the study and will receive cells transplanted into their forearms. They will be monitored for up to a year. The researchers will investigate whether the cells survive and resist the immune system and whether the transplanted cells can stabilize the blood sugar.

– If the cells survive the first few weeks, then we know that the tests have succeeded.