Infection with a virus called enterovirus can induce islet autoimmunity, which may lead to type 1 diabetes. This is the result of a latest study released by the journal "Diabetologia." The findings are an important piece of the puzzle researchers trying to better understand type 1 diabetes and its association with enteroviruses.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D), also known as juvenile diabetes, is a disease involves the autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing islet beta cells. There is a strong connection between islet cell autoantibodies and T1D. So detecting islet cell autoantibody can help identify autoimmune T1D.
Enteroviruses is a large group of small RNA viruses that are transmitted through the intestine and are one of the most common infective agents in humans. These viruses have been found to associated with T1D. The incidence of enterovirus infection among diabetic and autoantibody-positive people is higher. Moreover, patients with T1D are more likely to have enterovirus antibodies. Despite the evidence linking enteroviruses to T1D, the relationship between the two is not fully understood.
In the new study, the researchers from University of Tampere, University of Tampere, University of Turku, University of Helsinki, and their affiliated hospitals, screened for enterovirus RNA in the stool samples from case children with islet autoantibodies and matched control children, by using RT-PCR methods.
Results showed that case children had more enterovirus infections compared to the controls: 108 of the 129 case children have the enteroviral infection while only 169 of the 282 control children have the enteroviral infection. In other words, children with T1D were more likely to have enteroviral infections. Furthermore, no significant differences were present were seen between boys and girls.
"The present study suggests that enterovirus infections in young children are associated with the appearance of islet autoantibodies with a time lag of about 1 year," concluded first author Dr Hanna Honkanen. But the study also has limitations: first, the study enrolls children in one country; second, the study only examines stool samples, but nor respiratory samples. Despite these limitations, the findings are exiting because they support the idea that enteroviruses contribute to type 1 diabetes.
"There is clearly a need for further study," said Gordon Weir of Harvard Medical School.
How enteroviruses could cause beta-cell damage is required to be elucidated. And it is important to determine whether the same findings are true of older diabetes sufferers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are over 29 million Americans living with diabetes, 5 percent of whom have T1D. Each year about 18,000 patients are diagnosed with the disease. T1D cannot be explained only by genetic modifications. Environmental factors such as drugs, toxins, nutrients and viruses like enteroviruses also contribute to the disease. Cusabio offers FITC conjugated antibody
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