World Diabetes Day

World Diabetes Day is the primary global awareness campaign of the diabetes world and is held on November 14 each year. It was introduced in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to the alarming rise of diabetes around the world


                                                  

The researchers found targeting miR92a with antagomir reduced attacks of immune cells (green) on the insulin (white) producing beta cells in the pancreas. It also led to more regulatory T cells (red) that protect the beta cells. 

Image credit: Helmholtz Zentrum München

Despite this careful monitoring, people with type 1 diabetes still run the risk of developing too high or too low blood sugar, both of which can be fatal.

The new discovery came about because Dr. Daniel and her team had been analyzing blood samples from children held in a biobank that had been set up by co-author Prof. Anette-Gabriele Ziegler, a director of the IDF.

Type 1 diabetes arises when the immune system attacks insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. As a result, the body does not make enough insulin to keep blood sugar or glucose under control. Now, scientists in Germany have discovered that blocking a molecule in an immune system signaling pathway appears to prevent such autoimmune attacks.