Using an animal model of type 1 diabetes to identify biomarkers of pre-symptomatic disease and treatment efficacy

在1型糖尿病中，个体的免疫系统选择性地破坏体内分泌胰岛素的细胞，胰岛素是维持体内葡萄糖水平所必需的激素。这种自身免疫过程可以持续数年，直到足够的胰岛素产生细胞被杀死，使人临床患病。如果你能在这些人患上临床疾病之前就发现他们患有这种自身免疫性疾病，那么就有可能进行治疗干预，以防止这些非常重要的细胞的进一步损失。这种早期干预意味着不需要每天注射胰岛素，并将防止糖尿病并发症的发展。因此，如果可以在血液样本中检测到生物标志物，这将代表着1型糖尿病更好治疗的重大进展。

In type 1 diabetes the immune system of an individual selectively destroys the cells in the body that secrete insulin, a hormone which is essential for maintaining glucose levels in the body. This autoimmune process can be going on for several years before sufficient insulin producing cells have been killed to make the person clinically ill. If you could detect those people who were suffering from such an autoimmune condition before they became clinically ill it would be possible to intervene therapeutically to prevent further loss of these very important cells. Such an early intervention would mean that there would be no need to have daily insulin injections and would prevent the development of diabetic complications. Therefore if biomarkers could be detected in blood samples this would represent a significant advance towards a better treatment for type 1 diabetes.