– The hypothesis is that probiotics should promote a healthy intestinal flora and that this should have a positive effect on the immune system before the first signs of autoimmunity develop, says Markus Lundgren, Chief Physician at Kristianstad Central Hospital and a researcher at Lund University, who is leading the Swedish part of the Sint1a study.
Autoimmunity means that the body’s immune system, the task of which is to protect us from foreign bacteria and viruses by detecting and destroying them, instead starts attacking the body’s own tissues. Autoantibodies are markers that are formed as a reaction to this. Diabetes autoantibodies (islet cell autoantibodies) occur in the blood as a precursor to type 1 diabetes and are a sign that the immune system has begun to destroy the body’s own insulin-producing cells.
The children in Sint1a are only six weeks old when they join the study. Half are randomly selected to receive a supplement of Bifidobacterium Infantis (B. infantis EVC001) probiotics blended into their food and half receive a placebo (an ineffective substance).
– Previous studies have shown that a healthy intestinal flora reduces the degree of inflammation and that it helps the immune system distinguish between dangerous intruders and harmless ones, says Markus Lundgren.
The study, dubbed Sint1a (Supplementation with B. Infantis for Mitigation of Type 1 Diabetes Autoimmunity), starts at the end of August and is part of GPPAD, a network of researchers in Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Poland and Sweden that offers screening of newborns. Children who are found to have specific risk genes have an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes and may participate in clinical studies with the aim of delaying or preventing the disease (see the GPPAD fact box). So far, 245,000 newborns have been screened across Europe. In Sweden, the screening is conducted in Skåne.
Sint1a is a sister study to the Point study, where the researchers at GPPAD investigate whether orally administered insulin powder can train the immune system to recognise insulin, thus preventing it from attacking the body’s own insulin cells.
– In the future, we might be able to combine these two strategies to optimise the preventive measures, says Markus Lundgren.
