Scientific breakthroughs in one disease do not always shed light on treating other diseases. But that has been the surprising journey of a research team from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, in the US state of Minnesota.
After identifying a sugar molecule that cancer cells use on their surfaces to hide from the immune system, the researchers have found that the same molecule may eventually help in the treatment of type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes.
The disease is caused by genetic and other factors, and affects an estimated 1.3 million people in the United States. In 2021, an estimated 8.4 million people worldwide were living with it.
In their studies, the Mayo Clinic researchers took a cancer mechanism and turned it on its head.