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Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that leads to disrupted glucose metabolism. It requires lifelong insulin therapy. The Global Platform for the Prevention of Autoimmune Diabetes (GPPAD) collaborates within a European network to develop new methods to prevent this condition which is, to date incurable.
AVAnT1A is GPPAD's third intervention study. It will investigate whether vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 in the first year of life can protect children who have an increased genetic risk for type 1 diabetes from developing the condition. The study is supported by funding from The Leona M.
and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. In Germany, four out of 1000 children are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes , a metabolic disorder triggered by an autoimmune reaction.
In individuals with type 1 diabetes, the immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells in the Langerhans islets of the pancreas. Affected individuals require lifelong insulin treatment as insulin plays a vital role in transporting sugar from the blood into the body's cells. Approximately 90 percent of affected children and adolescents have no close relatives with type 1 diabetes, often leading to a late and unexpected diagnosis.
However, researchers can identify the underlying autoimmune process long before symptoms occur, based on islet autoantibodies in the blood. The exact causes of the underlying autoimmune reaction remain unclear. In large-scale, long-term studies, researchers at Helmholtz Munich have identif.
