Oxford University has been given £2 million funding from the Type 1 Diabetes Grand Challenge to research whether proteins in tick saliva could be used to treat the disease.
Oxford’s Cardiovascular Medicine Professor Shoumo Bhattacharya told Cherwell that Type 1 diabetes is caused by inflammation due to chemokines produced in pancreatic islets. Bhattacharya said: “We have been intrigued by the anti-chemokine properties of tick saliva’s Evasin proteins. Evasins evolved over 200 million years to allow the tick to bite and feed without being destroyed by the body’s defence mechanisms.”
Bhattacharya’s team identified small peptides from tick Evasins that block most chemokines, and evolved them further in the lab to improve them. He continued: “These peptides could be turned into drugs. By targeting these peptides to the islets we hope to be able to block islet inflammation. These targeted peptides could protect transplanted islets and beta cells and also protect the native islets in the early stages of Type 1 diabetes.”
Director of Research Partnerships at Breakthrough T1D Rachel Connor said: “by exploring the unique properties of tick saliva, this research could […] pave the way for a future without the burden of daily insulin.”
Affecting over 400,000 people in the UK, Type 1 Diabetes has no permanent cure. The current treatment for type 1 diabetes involves lifelong administration of insulin. Alternatively, patients can have beta cell therapies to replace the destroyed insulin-producing cells. However, the immune system also attacks transplanted cells, meaning patients must take immunosuppressant drugs which have severe side effects. If successful, the tick research could increase the efficacy of beta therapies and alleviate the need for immunosuppressants.
Director of Research at Diabetes UK Dr Elizabeth Robertson notes the “transformative potential” of this research and shares its potential to “revolutionise the way type 1 diabetes is treated and improve the lives of those affected by the condition”.
The funding is part of a wider initiative supported by the Steve Morgan Foundation, Diabetes UK, and Breakthrough T1D. Imperial College London, the University of Exeter, and the University of Cambridge have also received money to pursue this research.
