Finnish Team Makes Diabetes Vaccine Breakthrough

jones_supa writes "A team working at Tampere University, Finland has discovered the virus that causes type 1 diabetes. The enterovirus penetrates the pancreas and destroys insulin-producing cells, eventually causing diabetes. Researchers have looked at more than a hundred different strains of the virus and pinpointed five that could cause diabetes. They believe they could produce a vaccine against those strains. One virus type has been identified to carry the biggest risk. A vaccine could also protect against its close relatives, to give the best possible effect. A similar enterovirus causes polio, which has been almost eradicated in many parts of the world thanks to vaccination programmes. A prototype diabetes vaccine has already been produced and tested on animals. Taking the vaccine through a clinical trial would cost some 700 million euros. Some funding is in place from the United States and from Europe, but more is required. Professor Heikki Hyöty says that money is the biggest obstacle in moving to testing in humans, but he sees that people are interested in their research and that the funding problems will ultimately be solved."

progress is good

[Gravis Zero]

progress toward making a vaccine is good and all but when will they finnish it. ;)

Re:Not much info

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in Tampere. On a hunch I'd say it's reliable. Tampere University is a well respected Uni. To be more sure I'd have to read the original study. Would not be the first time the actual study is good, but then media just interprets and reports it all wrong. The actual study might be about exoplanets for all I know.

Re:progress is good

[NoMaster]

... but when will they finnish it. ;)

There's norway to know; it'll be dane when they're sweden ready.

Re:progress is good

[Pranadevil2k]

Europe on that high horse, huh? When they put a release date on this, denmark your calendars.

Re:Not much info

[Anonymous Coward]

group B coxsackievirus 1

Who the hell came up with that name? I can't be the only one that wants to pronounce that as cock-suckie-virus...

Re:Not much info

[jones_supa]

There was also recently someone in /r/learnprogramming who was new to C++ and his first impression was that std::cout << "Hello world"; looks just like "count your STDs and tell the whole world".