Peptide May Prevent Diabetes

NEW YORK- In a report published in Nature Immunology, officials from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York state a soluble dimeric peptide-major histocompatibility complex chimera called DEF prevents the onset of type 1 diabetes in mice.

The mice, prone to the disease, were treated with DEF every 5 days. Ten of the 12 mice in the experiment resisted development of the disease for 4.5 months during the testing. Once the DEF injections halted, however, the mice developed diabetes within 15 days.

DEF is constructed on an immunoglobulin scaffold to bind to cognate T cells.

Information from Given Imaging