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Virus linked to type 1 diabetes
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Researchers found a significant association between enteroviral infection and the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in children, according to data presented this week at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.
“We studied the possible association of enterovirus infections with type 1 diabetes at the time of diagnosis,” Antonio Toniolo, MD, professor of medical microbiology, University of Insubria, Verese, Italy, said in a press release. “Literature suggests that infection by different enteroviruses may be linked to the early stages of diabetes.”
The researchers tested 112 children aged 2 to 16 years for enteroviral DNA at the time of type 1 diabetes diagnosis.
Low-level enterovirus infectivity and genome fragments were detected in the peripheral blood leukocytes of 83% of patients. Utilizing the same methods, enterovirus genomes were found in only 7% of healthy participants without diabetes.
Amplicon sequencing revealed that enteroviruses belonging to the A, B and C group — but not the D group — were identified in children with diabetes.
At diagnosis, high hemoglobin A1c levels were present in most of the patients, which suggests that the detected enteroviruses had been producing infection for at least two to three months, according to the researchers.
“These data do not provide a casual relationship between enterovirus infections and diabetes,” Toniolo said. “However, the high prevalence of enteroviral genome sequences in newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes cases indicates that different enterovirus types represent a significant biomarker of early stage juvenile diabetes.”
If confirmed in other patient populations and geographic areas, early enterovirus detection could help researchers identify environmental factors that lead to the development of type 1 diabetes, the researchers said.