Scientists know why Type 1 Diabetes is so bad for children

Scientists have discovered why type 1 diabetes is more severe and aggressive when it develops in children.

Type 1 is caused by the immune system attacking the cells of the pancreas that control blood sugar levels.

The research team showed the pancreas is still developing in childhood, especially at the age of seven, which makes it more vulnerable to damage.

They say that newly developed drugs can buy patients for an adult pancreas, delaying the disease.

Type 1 Diabetes affects around 400,000 people in the UK.

Gracie, eight years old from Merseyside, suddenly fell ill on Halloween in 2018. It started as a bit of a cold, but quickly progressed.

“He went from being a very happy one-year-old, going to nursery and dancing and singing, to almost dying in less than 48 hours,” said Dad Gareth.

“The diagnosis remains the worst part of our life. Not that everything we take is given 10-20 times more difficult,” he said.

The Nye family had to adapt quickly – keeping everything they needed to eat or drink gracie, checking blood sugar levels to tell his body his blood sugar.

Gracie now has a glucose monitor and an insulin pump and is “bossing diabetes”, says her father.

“Gracie’s a superstar,” he added.

But why are children like Gracie exposed, especially those under the age of sevenhave a more aggressive disease than those diagnosed in their teenage years or later, remains a mystery.

The study, published in the journal Science Sciasa, showed this in the development of beta cells living in the pancreas.

These are the cells that release the hormone insulin when blood sugar levels rise after we eat.

Researchers at the University of Exeter studied pancreas samples from 250 donors, which allowed them to see how beta cells end up in aging people.

Early in life these beta cells are shown as small clusters or as individual cells, but as we age they grow in numbers in groups of Langerhans.

The study found out what happens after the immune system attacks the patient’s own cells.

Beta cells in small clusters are selected and destroyed so they don’t have a chance to mature.

Those in the larger islets are still attacked, but are more stable allowing patients to produce lower levels of insulin which reduces the severity of their disease.

“I think this is an important finding for Type 1 Diabetes – this research sheds light on why the disease is so aggressive in children,” Dr Sarah Richardson, from the University of Exeter, told the BBC.

He said “the future is very bright” for children diagnosed with type 1 today.

This includes the possibility of screening healthy children for the disease and new immunotherapy drugs to delay it.

The UK has licensed teplizumum, an immunotherapy that prevents the immune system from attacking beta cells and may give them time to mature – although it is not available on the NHS.

“Because we have new drugs for the treatment of type 1 diabetes in children, we hope that it can prevent or prolong it in young people,” said Dr Richardson.

The research is part of the Type 1 Diabetes Grant Challenge organized by the Steve Morgan Foundation, diabetes UK, and Breakthrough T1D.

Rachel Connor, Director of Research Partnerships at Breakthrough T1D, said: “This study gives us a missing piece of the puzzle, which explains why type 1 diabetes persists so much in children than in adults.”

Dr Elizabeth Robertson, Director of research and clinical practice at Diabetes UK, said: