Israeli study points to potential new treatment for type 1.5 diabetes

Israeli researchers at Bar-Ilan University have reversed type 1.5 diabetes in about 30% of mice treated with a combination of three existing drugs.

The findings, published in MedComm, could pave the way for more targeted treatments for humans with Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA), a form of diabetes that combines features of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes and can be difficult to diagnose and treat. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that LADA accounts for 4% to 12% of diabetes cases worldwide.

The study was led by Dr. Ron Piran, with Wisal Sawaed as lead author. The team sought not only to develop a more effective treatment but also to identify which patients would benefit from it.

“My goal was not only to develop a more effective therapy, but also to determine whether we could predict in advance who would benefit from it,” Sawaed said in an interview with the Times of Israel.

The research began after Piran was consulted about a 60-year-old patient diagnosed with type 2 diabetes whose condition continued to deteriorate. A 'C-peptide' test revealed unusually low insulin production, suggesting the patient might instead have LADA. “So, we started to think about LADA, which is not as famous a diabetes as the other two,” Piran explained.

When the researchers administered the three-drug combination to the mice, approximately one-third were cured. The remaining animals showed little or no response.

The team then identified two RNA markers that helped distinguish which mice responded to the treatment and which did not, potentially allowing researchers to predict who might benefit from the therapy.

Piran said it was "an important step toward precision medicine for autoimmune diabetes.”

The researchers say they hope to move on to human clinical trials. Because all three drugs are already FDA-approved and on the market, Piran said their safety has already been established.

“We may one day be able to identify those most likely to benefit before treatment even begins,” he said.

The number of people living with diabetes, currently approaching 600 million, is projected to reach 853 million by 2050.