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New virus link to diabetes
raises hopes of vaccine British scientists have found strong evidence that childhood diabetes might be caused by a common virus, raising hopes that a vaccine could be developed to prevent the illness. The results of a new study published today, show that the bodies of recently diagnosed diabetics respond differently to Coxsackie B4 (CVB4) virus than the bodies of healthy people. The differences were most pronounced in the blood of teenagers and young adults in the study who had most recently been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, according to the study in the American journal Diabetes. "The implications are clear," said Dr Mark Peakman, immunologist at Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, London, who led the three-year study. "If viruses have a proven role in the disease there is the future possibility of developing vaccines to prevent infection and therefore Type 1 diabetes," he said. Cases of diabetes are rising. National Statistics predicted a 31 per cent increase of 1.51 million by 2023. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body lacks insulin that controls blood sugar levels. Patients have to inject insulin. Its causes are not properly understood but scientists believe there is an interaction between a person's genes and something they encounter in the environment. Several genes have been linked to diabetes. A viral trigger has been suggested already but this is the first evidence to implicate a specific virus. Several years ago CVB4 was recovered from the pancreas of a child who died from Type 1 diabetes. Using DNA technology the virus was tested in the blood of 40 young diabetics, who had been diagnosed not more than five months previously, and a health control group. Scientists had already discovered a number of genes that are associated with diabetes. It now seems likely that CVB4 can trigger diabetes in suspectible people, possibly by stimulating the immune system to kill off the cells that produce insulin. The team, funded by the charity Action Research, found that CVB4 readily activated the immune system of people with diabetes and found new evidence that they responded differently to the healthy people. Dr Peakman said: "A virus is like an enemy invasion that the body fights with an infantry of anti-viral cells called effector cells. At the same time the body keeps a store of reserve troops of memory cells that can quickly turn into effector cells the next time the virus is encountered." He added: "Our research found there were significantly more effector cells among the diabetics. "If the virus had nothing to do with the disease you would expect to find the same distribution of effector cells. But there were far more of these in the diabetics suggesting they had a close and recent encounter with CVB4."
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