Until now, there has been no known way to prevent Type I Diabetes in individuals considered to be at high risk. However, according to the research findings of a team of London Ontario scientists, this may no longer be true. The research, which was released today in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal, shows that it is possible to prevent diabetes prone mice from developing the disease by adding certain proteins made by insulin producing cells of the pancreas to their diet. The proteins, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), which is thought to be a trigger factor for diabetes, along with interleukin-4 (IL-4) can re-program harmful immune responses by promoting a mechanism known as oral immune tolerance.
