A team of Calgary researchers says that they have discovered one of the causes of diabetes.
The scientists have spent the last eight years in the lab trying to pinpoint the immune system's role in diabetes.
But, diabetics will have to be patient - a cure for humans is between five and 10 years away.
However, that didn't temper the enthusiasm of diabetic Holly McWilliams.
"This is very exciting," said the 18-year-old Calgarian who has had to inject insulin four times a day since she was three years old to stay alive.
She now uses an insulin pump to maintain proper levels of the hormone.
There are at least two strands of diabetes:
Type 1 -- when the body doesn't produce insulin.
Type 2 -- when insulin in the body doesn't work properly.
Dr. Ji-Won Yoon's discovery affects Type 1 diabetics, which inflicts about 100,000 Canadians.
One and a half million Canadians have diabetes; more than 750,000 have it and don't know it.
"This is a major landmark study and it helps us understand the disease in a way we haven't in the past," says Dr. David Lau of the Julia McFarlane Diabetes Research Centre.
A protein in the pancreas, which produces insulin, plays a critical role in triggering diabetes in mice .
Destruction of insulin-producing cells by the immune system can be prevented by halting protein production.
Lau is confident studies on mice will also work on humans. 1. Who has spent the last eight years in the lab trying to pinpoint the immune system's role in diabetes?
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