Patients in the UK have begun receiving a new treatment for diabetes—one that experts believe could mark a major breakthrough in the fight against the disease. This new approach has the potential to delay the onset of symptoms for years, and may even eliminate the need for insulin injections altogether.
According to a report by Science Alert, this treatment represents a radical shift in how diabetes is understood and approached. Instead of simply managing the disease after it appears, the goal is now to intercept it before symptoms even arise.
The pioneering treatment, known as teplizumab, has already been administered to the first adult patient in the UK—Hannah Robinson—who was diagnosed with early-stage type 1 diabetes by chance during a routine pregnancy checkup. Scientists are now working on ways to identify people who might benefit from the drug, as it only works if given before any symptoms begin to show.
Type 1 diabetes affects about 10% of people with diabetes, while the remaining 90% suffer from type 2, a condition largely influenced by lifestyle factors. In type 2 diabetes, insulin is still produced but doesn’t function properly.
Type 1 diabetes, on the other hand, is an autoimmune condition where the body completely loses its ability to produce insulin due to the immune system attacking the pancreas. Without insulin, blood sugar levels rise dangerously, increasing the risk of blindness, kidney failure, and early death.
Although type 1 diabetes is often thought of as a childhood disease, research from the University of Exeter has shown that more than half of new cases actually occur in adults.
For millions of people worldwide with type 1 diabetes, managing blood sugar levels requires daily insulin injections for life. However, insulin therapy comes with its own risks. If blood sugar drops too low, it can cause hypoglycemia, which in severe cases may lead to seizures or even death.
Constantly juggling blood sugar highs and lows also takes a toll on both physical and mental health.
During her pregnancy, Robinson required insulin and experienced firsthand how “life revolves entirely around balancing blood sugar levels.”
Teplizumab offers a completely different approach. Rather than replacing insulin, it targets the root cause of type 1 diabetes: the immune system's mistaken attack on the pancreas.
Normally, the immune system distinguishes between the body’s own tissues and foreign invaders, protecting us from infections and cancers without harming our organs. But in autoimmune diseases, this balance breaks down for reasons not yet fully understood.
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly attacks the pancreas, destroying the insulin-producing cells.
Teplizumab works by “retraining” the immune system and suppressing the immune cells that target the pancreas. Clinical studies have shown that it can delay the onset of type 1 diabetes—and the need for insulin therapy—by two to three years, with generally mild side effects.
The drug is already approved in the United States and is currently under review for routine use by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
However, doctors point out one major limitation: by the time symptoms like thirst, weight loss, and fatigue appear, more than 75% of the pancreas’s ability to produce insulin has already been destroyed.
For teplizumab and similar treatments to be effective, they must be given before any symptoms appear—while blood sugar levels are still normal. This makes such therapies unsuitable for people who have already been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
