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With the support of a grant from the Diabetes Australia Research Trust, Dr Andrew Sutherland from St Vincent鈥檚 Institute Medical Research is studying a new way of potentially preventing and treating type 1 diabetes.

鈥淭here are a class of immune cells, Th17, that can play a role in the development of type 1 diabetes so we want to identify the molecules these cells produce. This could pave the way for the development of new therapies,鈥� Dr Sutherland said.

鈥淢y research will be looking specifically at IL-17F, a protein produced by Th17 that is responsible for cell signaling, that hasn鈥檛 previously been studied in type 1 diabetes.

鈥淲e have shown that IL-17F causes the dysfunction and death of pancreatic beta cells which may be an important pathway that leads to type 1 diabetes.

鈥淗opefully, if we can inhibit the function of IL-17F then we can prevent or treat type 1 diabetes in mice.

鈥淚f it works in the mouse model, then IL-17F inhibitors could be good candidates for a clinical trial of a drug to prevent type 1 diabetes.鈥�