Insulin nasal spray may prevent the development of type 1 diabetes in high risk patients, according to a new study.

Research published this month in Diabetes Care investigated the safety and immune effects of intranasal insulin in 38 individuals at risk for type 1 diabetes.

Six participants in each arm of the crossover study (intranasal insulin-first and placebo-first groups) developed diabetes a median of 1.1 years from entry.

Eleven of these participants had baseline first-phase insulin responses to intravenous glucose (a measure of beta-cell function) no higher than the first percentile.

Circulating insulin antibodies increased significantly during intranasal insulin treatment, the report indicates.

Intranasal insulin was also associated with significant decreases in T-cell proliferation to insulin.

‘This is, to our knowledge, the first demonstration in humans of an effect of mucosally administered autoantigen on potential surrogate disease markers,’ say the authors.

‘The ultimate demonstration of this in humans would be the ability of intranasal insulin to prevent or delay diabetes onset,’ they add.