Researchers at Cardiff University and Swansea University are running a new trial to investigate whether a medicine currently used for the skin condition psoriasis could also be used to help people with type 1 diabetes produce some of their own insulin.

Over three hundred thousand people in the UK have Type 1 diabetes and the drug used to treat them, insulin, has not changed in ninety eight years.

Type 1 diabetes affects both children and adults, starting from the age of six months. This condition is different from the obesity related form of diabetes, common in adults, and is caused by the immune system destroying the insulin making cells of the pancreas. Without insulin the body is unable to control blood glucose. This results in high glucose levels which can cause damage to the heart, eyes, feet and kidneys.

Cardiff University says the drug being used in the trial, ustekinumab, is taken as an injection every one to two months and reduces the ability of the immune system to damage the insulin producing cells. It is already licensed to treat psoriasis, in which the immune system attacks skin cells, and appears to be very safe.

Professor Colin Dayan, from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine, said “In the early stages of type 1 diabetes about 20% of insulin producing cells could still be working. We’re offering newly diagnosed patients the opportunity to potentially save some of these cells, making it easier for them to control blood glucose levels. This could also reduce their risk of complications.”

The trial is open to people aged between twelve and eighteen who are within a hundred days of diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Participants will be given the drug or a placebo over the course of a year.

Professor John Gregory, from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine, said “Only a small proportion of people with diabetes get the sort of ideal control that we know reduces their risk of complications. The drug we’re testing could help some people achieve this control and significantly improve their quality of life.”

Colin Dayan said “We hope that at the end of this study we’ll have some idea of whether this drug is well tolerated and whether it works to hold on to the insulin.”

This project is funded by the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme, a Medical Research Council and National Institute of Health Research partnership. A similar study is being run in adults in Canada.

Hospitals taking part so far include:

• University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff
• Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital for Wales, Cardiff
• Tayside Children’s Hospital, Dundee
• Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, Exeter
• Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, Aberdeen
• Morriston Hospital, Swansea
• Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester
• St George’s, London

For more information on the USTEKID trial visit https://www.type1diabetesresearch.org.uk/current-trials/