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Biologic therapeutics are currently not approved for the treatment of patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. However, promising results from recent randomized controlled studies suggest that biologic therapeutics have therapeutic potential. This article summarizes the causal steps of the pathogenesis of type 1 and type 2 diabetes which are targeted by biologic therapeutics and reviews the treatment results.

Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) expression is reduced in islets of patients with type 2 diabetes. 70 patients with type 2 diabetes were randomized to treatment with anakinra (IL-1Ra) or placebo for 13 weeks. Following treatment glycated hemoglobin was 0.46 percent lower, C-peptide secretion was enhanced, and systemic IL-6 and C-reactive protein levels were reduced in the anakinra group compared to the placebo group. Insulin resistance remained unchanged. Blocking IL-1 activity improved glycemia and b-cell secretory function and reduced markers of systemic inflammation.

A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled international multicenter trial including 188 newly diagnosed insulin-dependent diabetic (IDDM) patients was undertaken with the aim of investigating whether immunosuppression for one year with ciklosporin (Cs) could induce and maintain clinical remission and improvement of beta-cell function. The relative odds for non-insulin-requiring remission at one year were increased approximately five times in the Cs-treated group. After three months Cs-treated patients achieved more than a doubling of beta-cell function compared to baseline than did placebo-treated patients, and the Cs-treated group maintained this improvement in beta-cell function for 12 months, whereas the placebo-group lost beta-cell function during the same period. Short duration of disease (less than or equal to six weeks of symptoms, less than or equal to two weeks of insulin treatment) was associated positively with remission, as was an elevated proinsulin/C-peptide ratio, especially in patients with the tissue-type HLA-DR 3,4; 4,X and X,X. Cs-treatment inhibited the formation of antibodies against insulin and islet cell components, but islet cell antibody status at entry was not predictive of remission. Cs-treatment caused a reversible decrement of kidney function as measured with serum creatinine and the calculated creatinine clearance, but studies of renal physiology and kidney biopsies performed on a limited subset of patients indicated that Cs treatment in IDDM patients for one year induced a slight chronic nephropathy in some of these.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)