JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

JDRF-funded researchers at the University of Queensland have launched a clinical trial into a new blood test they hope will be able to accurately predict people at risk of type 1 diabetes.

The test is the result of research that has identified a link between the onset of type 1 diabetes and a special type of protein called NF-Kappa B. In a healthy immune system, this protein is an important component of the immune response to infection. In people with type 1 diabetes, and seemingly also in people at risk of developing type 1 diabetes, this protein is constantly activated resulting in the autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas.

Read more...

For many years, researchers have suspected that bacteria, viruses and other micro-organisms play an important role in the development of autoimmune conditions such as type 1 diabetes. This “hygiene hypothesis” postulates that our decreasing exposure to a lower amount of bugs and germs may leave some people more susceptible to autoimmune attacks.

A team of researchers from Yale University in the US have leant further support to this hypothesis by demonstrating that a certain strain of research mice were far more likely to develop type 1 diabetes when raised in a special germ-free environment as opposed to normal laboratory conditions.

Read more...