According to a new study, taking a daily dose of insulin is safe and it may play the role of a vaccine to prevent type-1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease. This approach could prove helpful for young children at high risk of the disease as it can help prevent diabetes, if the study is applied to larger and longer trials.

In type-1 diabetes, islet cells in the pancreas are attacked and destroyed by body. Islet cells make insulin, which is a hormone that controls blood sugar. Approximately 3 million adults and children in the US are affected by the health condition.

The reason behind this large number is not known; however, it is rising just like allergies and other types of autoimmune conditions. It was found in another study that between 1995 and 2004, rates of type 1 diabetes in children below age 5 had increased 70%.

The study was led by Ezio Bonifacio, Ph.D., from the DFG Center for Regenerative Therapies in Dresden, Germany. According to Bonifacio, for the first time they have observed any response by the immune system to orally administered insulin in children.

According to him, “We have introduced a relatively new paradigm, which is to actively expose the body to one of its own proteins before the body has a chance to see it as foreign and to eliminate it like a virus, something which happens in children who develop type 1 diabetes".

According to researchers, the immune system considers proteins safe and tolerates them, when proteins are administered in the body through the mouth or nose, or when they are absorbed through the skin.