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Type I diabetes has been a mystery that scientists have been trying to solve for a couple of decades. While it was established way back that type I diabetes is an autoimmune disease, the cells or compounds of the body that immune system targets during the attack wasn't completely known.

About four of the targets of the immune system in causing Type I diabetes were revealed through the past 20 years and the fifth and the final puzzle remained to be solved so far. To put an end to this mystery a team of researchers from the University of Lincoln, England, discovered the final, target couple of days back and the findings were published in the journal Diabetes.

The five targets of the immune system in type I diabetes patients are Insulin, Glutamate decarboxylase, IA-2, Zinc transporter-8 and tetraspanin-7, according to BBC. Unveiling the fifth target tetraspanin-7 is believed to be a breakthrough discovery in the intervention of diabetes.

"With this new discovery, we have now finished identifying what the immune system is targeting - we have the complete picture," said lead researcher Dr Michael Christie in an interview, reported Dhaka Tribune. "Once the immune system decides it wants to get rid of something it's very hard to stop, so diabetes has proved to be a difficult disease to prevent," Christie added.

Type I diabetes, which is also known as Juvenile diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults. The disease though debilitating is quite rare and constitutes 5 percent of the diabetic population.

Insulin is not produced in the body of the patients that are affected by type I diabetes. Insulin is needed to take glucose into the cells from the bloodstream. In this case, the patient's own immune system target the insulin-producing beta cells and destroy them, as a result the production of insulin is ceased completely.

"We're hoping that, by having identified the major targets in the disease, we can find ways to prevent it by blocking the immune response to these five proteins without leaving that person vulnerable to infections," Christie added. "With recent improvements in our understanding of the disease I'm very hopeful we'll develop a treatment now; I have a lot more confidence than even five years ago."