November 1, 2002

LEXINGTON, Ky.- University of Kentucky researchers are part of a national team that is testing a possible vaccine for a common type of adult diabetes.

The vaccine, if successful, could eliminate or decrease the need for insulin injections among up to 25 percent of people with adult-onset diabetes _ up to 3.2 million Americans.

"I think it would have a huge impact," said Dr. Dennis Karounos, director of the UK Diabetes Program and co-investigator for the study. "The hope would be that fewer people would be dependent on insulin."

The research is being done at UK and four other sites nationally.

The vaccine, called DiaPep277, might hold what is known as "type 1 1/2" diabetes in check by protecting insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.

The vaccine would be injected every three to six months.

The national trial will study the vaccine's effectiveness. If successful, it won't be widely available for at least two years, Karounos said. In earlier studies, the vaccine was shown to stop the progression of type 1, or juvenile onset, diabetes in animals and humans.

The UK trial will study 20 adults with latent autoimmune diabetes, nicknamed "type 1 1/2" diabetes. This type of diabetes, like type 1, often requires insulin injections because the body's immune system attacks and destroys certain insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Like the type 2 form of the disease, the illness most often strikes adults older than 40.

Angela Blythe, 42, a UK pediatric nurse, is one of the first two people enrolled in the UK study. She was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in February. A blood test found she has the autoimmune form of the disease.

"I hope I never have to get to the point of needing insulin injections," Blythe said. The trial is a chance to test something that could "get rid of this, so I never have to worry about it."

About 80 percent of people who have Blythe's type of diabetes eventually need daily insulin injections, Karounos said.

Blythe and other study participants will get eight injections over two years for the study. Half will get the actual vaccine, the other group an inactive shot, for comparison.

The study is being sponsored by Peptor, a biopharmaceutical company based in Israel. Other universities testing the vaccine are Washington University in St. Louis and the universities of Colorado, Alabama and Washington in Seattle.

Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader