Children with diabetes are nearly ten times more likely to suffer from a virus infection as those who do not have the condition, researchers report today.
A review of 24 studies and two abstracts involving 4,448 participants found a strong association between the enterovirus infection – common viruses that affect infants in particular – and type 1 diabetes, particularly in children.
Australian researchers looked into the association because previous findings had been contradictory and no reviews of molecular studies had been carried out.
The study, led by Professor William Rawlinson of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, is said to be the first review of molecular studies in this area.
It centred on the ribonucleic acid (RNA) and protein levels of enteroviruses in the blood, stool or tissue of pre-diabetic and diabetic patients and compared them with patients who do not have the condition.
The results, published on the British Medical Journal online today, found children with type 1 diabetes were almost 10 times more likely to have the enterovirus infection as other children. In addition, children with pre-diabetes were around three times more likely to have the infection than other children.
There has been a sharp rise in childhood type 1 diabetes worldwide, especially in those under the age of five.
The researchers stressed that because this was an observational study, they could not rule out other factors, such as genetic risk, that might affect the relationship between infection and type 1 diabetes.
In an accompanying editorial, Professor Didier Hober and Famara Sane from the University of Lille in France, say: “The association between enteroviruses and type 1 diabetes opens up the possibility of developing new preventive and therapeutic strategies to fight this disease.”
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