Enterovirus infections and type 1 diabetes mellitus: is there any relationship?

Abstract

Several health organizations have classified diabetes mellitus, a metabolic syndrome, as the epidemic of the century, since it affects millions of people worldwide and is one of the top ten causes of death. Type 1 diabetes is considered to be an autoimmune disease, in which autoaggressive T cells infiltrate the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, leading to the destruction of insulin producing beta cells. The risk of the disease is modulated by genetic factors, mainly genes coding for human leukocyte antigens (HLA). However, the incidence of this disease has increased significantly during the recent decades, which cannot be explained only by genetic factors. Environmental perturbations have also been associated to the development of diabetes. Among these factors, viral triggers have been implicated; particularly enteroviruses, which have been associated to the induction of the disease. Supporting the hypothesis, numerous lines of evidence coming from mouse models and patients with this type of diabetes have shown the association. The present review aims to provide some understanding of how type 1 diabetes occurs and the possible role of enterovirus in this pathology

Re-thinking Vaccinology: “Act Universally, think NK Cells”?

“…Given the occasional observation of autoimmune responses in association with natural infection (e.g., certain viral infections), it is also conceivable that co-formulation of strong adjuvants (e.g., Th1 or Th17 adjuvants) with specific pathogen-derived promiscuously MHCII-binding Th peptides (PPPs), or proteins comprising such peptides, promotes Tc-mediated recognition of self-peptides that share homology in amino acid composition with said specific PPPs. Such autoreactive responses are likely to be triggered by 'degenerate specificity of TCR-mediated recognition, also called 'TCR degeneracy of immune recognition' [17][18][19][20]. The author postulates that this phenomenon could also occur as a result from adjuvant-mediated enhancement of PPP presentation on APC surface-presented MHCII molecules.…”

Relationship between depression and diabetes Mellitus

“…Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is characterized by the destruction of pancreatic beta cells 9 , resulting from an interaction between genetic predisposition and environmental factors, such as exposure to toxins early in life, lack of vitamin and stress [10][11][12][13][14] . The role of enterovirus infections has also been reported 15 . Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is caused by a defect in the secretion and action of insulin (insulin resistance).…”