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An international collaborative project on the role of enterovirus infections
in type 1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is a common chronic disease mainly arising in children
and young people. In Europe, its incidence is high and steadily increasing.
The disease is caused by the destruction of insulin-producing cells in
the pancreas and is treated by daily injections of insulin. Many studies
have suggested that enterovirus infections can induce this process. This
study aims to confirm the link between enterovirus infections and type
1 diabetes in an internationally standardised project. The final goal
is to find out if type 1 diabetes can be prevented by an enterovirus vaccine
and provide information needed for the development of such vaccines.
The main aims are
1) to confirm and greatly extend previous studies, which have suggested
a link between enterovirus infections and type 1 diabetes by carrying
out a standardised multi-centre study in five EU countries
2) to identify the molecular determinants of diabetogenic enterovirus
strains (serotype and gene sequence). This is important for the pathogenetic
aspects and for the development of effective and safe vaccines.
3) To standardise the methods used for the evaluation of the link between
enterovirus infections and type 1 diabetes.
Study subjects include newly diagnosed type 1 diabetic children from
five European countries with varying incidence of type 1 diabetes and
carefully matched control subjects. In addition, a birth cohort series
will be prospectively studied in which susceptible children will be followed
from birth and regularly monitored for the appearance of diabetes-related
autoantibodies or diabetes itself.
Virus analyses will be carried out in collaboration with four independent
virus laboratories using standardized methods. Enterovirus infections
will be documented from diabetic and control subjects by detecting enterovirus
genome by RT-PCR in the whole blood, mononuclear cells, serum and stools
and by antibody determinations from serum. The production of interferon-alpha
will be analysed as an additional marker of virus infection. The serotype
and nucleotide sequence of the enterovirus strains originating from diabetic
children will be compared to strains derived from control subjects as
well as to enterovirus reference strains.
The project "Enterovirus infections as a risk factor for type 1
Diabetes - Viruses in Diabetes" (VirDiab) is funded by the European
Commission under the Quality of Life programme (Key Action Line 2: Control
of Infectious Diseases). Duration of project is 3 years: Dec 1st 2001
- Nov 30th 2004.
For further information please contact:
Professor Heikki Hyöty, MD, PhD, Professor of Biomedicine and Virology
University of Tampere, Medical School
Finland
E-mail: heikki.hyoty@uta.fi
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