A small trial on US patients suggests that alefacept helps the body produce its own insulin, which is key for people with type 1 diabetes.

 

Type 1 diabetes affects around 400,000 people in the UK.

 

Researchers said the drug could be better than other treatments because it protects the immune system - but more research was needed.

 

The findings are published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

 

Alefacept (sold as Amevive) was used to treat the skin disorder psoriasis（牛皮癣） in the US before it was withdrawn³ by its manufacturer in 2011. The drug was never approved for the European drug market.

 

Psoriasis, like type 1 diabetes, is an autoimmune disorder that occurs when the immune system attacks healthy skin cells.

 

In clinical trials of the drug on psoriasis, the drug was found to attack specific types of T-cells that were also involved in attacking insulin-producing cells in type 1 diabetes.

 

So researchers, led by a team at Indiana University, Indianapolis, decided⁴ to investigate if it could have any effect on newly diagnosed type 1 patients.

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