A drug that was used to treat a skin disorder has shown signs of being able to treat aspects of type 1 diabetes.

一种治疗皮肤病的药物似有可以用于治疗1型糖尿病的迹象。

A small trial on US patients suggests that alefacept helps the body produce its own insulin, which is key for people with type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes affects around 400,000 people in the UK.

Researchers said the drug could be better than other treatments because it protects the immune system - but more research was needed.

The findings are published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

Alefacept (sold as Amevive) was used to treat the skin disorder psoriasis（牛皮癣） in the US before it was withdrawn by its manufacturer in 2011. The drug was never approved for the European drug market.

Psoriasis, like type 1 diabetes, is an autoimmune disorder that occurs when the immune system attacks healthy skin cells.

In clinical trials of the drug on psoriasis, the drug was found to attack specific types of T-cells that were also involved in attacking insulin-producing cells in type 1 diabetes.

So researchers, led by a team at Indiana University, Indianapolis, decided to investigate if it could have any effect on newly diagnosed type 1 patients.