A TB vaccine for diabetics?

A TB vaccine for diabetics?

News:

1. According to a study published in npj Vaccines, tuberculosis vaccine called BCG(Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) might lower blood sugar in diabetes patients over a five to eight year period.

Important facts:

2. Case Study

• In the study, “Long-term reduction in hyperglycemia in advanced type 1 diabeties”, patients received BCG vaccine. Three year later, other patients received the same treatment.
• The trial investigators, led by immunologist Denise L. Faustman from Massachusetts General Hospital in the U.S.  The findings of this study are given below:

3. The study found a sustained drop in a marker for high-blood sugar called HbA1c.

4. None of the patients experienced hypoglycaemia or dangerously low blood sugar, a potentially life-threatening side-effect in patients taking insulin.

5. The study promises a safe and inexpensive treatment for type-I diabetics, if replicated in large clinical trials.

6. Even though the BCG vaccine doesnot work very well against childhood TB, it protects against leprosy, sepsis among babies and leishmaniasis.

7. It is also the first approved immunotheraphy against bladder cancer.

8. Although BCG seemed to have regenerated the pancreas in the phase 1 trial, the Faustaman team found little improvement in their patients’ HbA1C levels.

9. In the phase I trial, Faustaman team gave the BCG vaccine to three patients, finds that the patients produced more pancreatic insulin and had more of a type of immune cell called Regulatory T cells(Tregs), which protect against autoimmune diseases.

10. BCG increased the numbers of Tregs.

11. although, Tregs help type-1 patients a little, it switch to glycolysis which extracts more sugar from the bloodstream, which seems to be behind the improvement in HbA1c.