Posted 20 March 2025
SVI scientists have developed a simple blood test – requiring just a small amount of blood – that can measure disease-causing immune responses associated with type 1 diabetes, potentially transforming the way the disease is detected and managed in children.
Until now available tests have left doctors and researchers blind to the disease-causing immune response in type 1 diabetes, instead relying on measuring antibodies in the blood, which indicate that autoimmune damage has already occurred.
“It’s like we’ve been trying to find a leak in a roof, but we’ve only been able to measure the puddles on the floor – seeing the results of the damage that is underway,” says Associate Professor Stuart Mannering, Head of the Human Immunology Lab at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research (SVI).
“Our new blood test should help us to identify where the water is coming from.”
Type 1 diabetes can develop spontaneously, but it often runs in families and is diagnosed most commonly in children under the age of 14. Someone with a parent or sibling with type 1 diabetes has a 15-20 times greater risk than the general population. These people live with the spectre of developing the condition, but current tests are reliant on being able to identify antibodies in the blood – they are not able to directly measure the activity of the immune cells.
“Our test measures the activity of the immune cells which are doing the damage in type 1 diabetes, using a small sample of blood and in a simple format,” said Associate Professor Mannering, lead author on the paper published today in Science Translational Medicine.
The new test may have many applications, including providing real-time insights into the autoimmune response, which would be very helpful to evaluate the outcomes of clinical trials of new immunotherapies, enabling faster and more targeted intervention strategies in children.
Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system’s T cells gradually destroy insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Those affected require lifelong insulin therapy and constant monitoring to manage blood sugar levels. It affects more than 130,000 Australians. Every day, seven Australians are diagnosed with this condition, many of them children.
By optimising and further validating this new blood test, researchers hope to revolutionise the early detection and treatment of type 1 diabetes.
This research was carried out with collaborators at WEHI, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, The University of Melbourne and The Royal Children’s Hospital.
This project was funded with grant support from Breakthrough T1D and its Australian affiliate, JDRF, through its Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research Network.
Find out more about our Human Immunology Lab