Rapamycin prevents the onset of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in NOD mice.

The effect of the immunosuppressive agent rapamycin (RAPA) was assessed in the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse which is an autoimmune model of IDDM. RAPA was prepared in a vehicle of 8% cremophor EL/2% ethanol and investigated in two studies. NOD/MrK female mice (six per group, study no. 1; 10 per group, study no. 2) were dosed three times per week p.o. by gavage from 56 to 170 days of age (study no. 1) or from 64 to 176 days of age (study no. 2). Mice treated with RAPA at 0.6 mg/kg, 6 mg/kg, or 12 mg/kg maintained normal plasma glucose through 170 or 176 days of age with 10%, 0%, and 0% incidence of diabetes respectively. In contrast, naive, vehicle-treated, or RAPA 0.06 mg/kg-treated mice exhibited elevated plasma glucose and disease incidence typical for female NOD mice. Mice which became diabetic had elevated levels of beta-hydroxybutyrate, triglycerides and cholesterol. These plasma lipid concentrations were positively correlated with the duration of hyperglycaemia (r = 0.85, 0.87 and 0.84 respectively). Outside of its ability to prevent diabetes, RAPA itself did not affect the lipid profile of the mice. Intervention therapy with RAPA was ineffective at reversing the course of disease after IDDM onset under these experimental conditions. Finally, we report here that prophylactic treatment with RAPA was able to protect against IDDM development in some RAPA-treated mice 41 weeks after cessation of treatment. These data show that orally administered RAPA is effective in preventing onset of disease in the NOD mouse, a relevant model of autoimmune type I diabetes in man.