Ahead of the Curve: Early Interventions for Delaying Type 1 Diabetes

Panelists discuss how Type 1 diabetes imposes significant physical, emotional, and financial burdens on patients through the lifelong need for insulin therapy, blood glucose monitoring, lifestyle modifications, and management of potential complications.

Panelists discuss how screening for Type 1 diabetes should focus on identifying high-risk individuals through family history, genetic markers, and autoantibody testing, while emphasizing the importance of early detection to prevent diabetic ketoacidosis at diagnosis.

Panelists discuss how Type 1 diabetes progresses through distinct stages, from initial autoimmunity with normal blood glucose (Stage 1), to dysglycemia without symptoms (Stage 2), to clinical diagnosis with symptoms (Stage 3), marking critical intervention points for treatment and management.

Panelists discuss how delaying intervention during Stage 2 Type 1 diabetes increases the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis and complications at diagnosis, while also potentially accelerating beta cell destruction and reducing the window for preservation therapies.

Panelists discuss how screening for autoantibodies can help identify individuals at risk for type 1 diabetes before symptoms develop, enabling earlier intervention and potentially delaying disease onset.

Panelists discuss how teplizumab binds to T cells and modifies their function to preserve beta cell function, potentially delaying type 1 diabetes onset in at-risk individuals by an average of 2-3 years.

Panelists discuss how teplizumab demonstrated efficacy in clinical trials by delaying type 1 diabetes onset in high-risk patients.

Panelists discuss how patient selection for teplizumab therapy requires careful screening for autoantibody positivity and preserved C-peptide function, followed by a 14-day outpatient infusion process that needs close monitoring for cytokine release syndrome and other potential adverse effects.