A pill typically prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis and alopecia might help slow the progression of type 1 diabetes, researchers said in a new study.

A pill typically prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis and alopecia might help slow the progression of type 1 diabetes, a new study says.

Baricitinib safely preserved the body's own insulin production in people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, researchers reported Friday at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Vienna.

Further, patients' diabetes started progressing once they stopped taking baricitinib, results show. They produced less insulin and had less stable blood sugar levels.

"This is a really exciting step forward," lead researcher Michaela Waibel, an immunologist and project manager at St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research in Australia, said in a news release.

"For the first time, we have an oral disease-modifying treatment that can intervene early enough to allow people with type 1 diabetes to be significantly less dependent on insulin treatment and provide time free from the demands of the disease's daily management, and which could also lower rates of long-term complications," Waibel said.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system attacks insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. As insulin production slows and eventually stops, patients must rely on insulin injections the rest of their lives to manage blood sugar levels.

Baricitinib works by quelling signals in the body that spur on the immune system, and is already approved for treating autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and alopecia, researchers said.

The research team theorized that baricitinib might help protect beta cells in people newly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, researchers said.

For the new study, researchers recruited 91 people ages 10 to 30 who'd been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in the previous 100 days. The patients were randomly prescribed daily baricitinib or placebo pills for 48 weeks.

Taking baricitinib preserved patients' beta cell function, decreased their blood sugar fluctuations and reduced their need for insulin, the study found.

Further, after people stopped taking baricitinib at 48 weeks, their blood sugar control declined to the point where it was about the same as among the placebo patients by weeks 72 and 96, researchers said.

The former baricitinib patients also wound up needing as much insulin as the placebo patients, researchers added.

"Among the promising agents shown to preserve beta cell function in type 1 diabetes, baricitinib stands out because it can be taken orally, is well tolerated, including by young children, and is clearly efficacious," Waibel said.

The results "justify further trials to determine if treatment benefit can be sustained over many years on treatment and if treating earlier stages of disease can prevent or delay clinical diagnosis," she said.

If the drug proves effective, doctors might be able to ward off type 1 diabetes by identifying people with a genetic risk for the disease and treating them in advance, Waibel said.

"We are hopeful that larger phase III trials with baricitinib are going to commence soon, in people with recently diagnosed type 1 diabetes as well as in earlier stages to delay insulin dependence," she added. "If these trials are successful, the drug could be approved for type 1 diabetes treatment within five years."

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The Mayo Clinic has more on type 1 diabetes.

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