May 24, 2002 (AP) - Scientists have found a strong clue that childhood diabetes is linked to a common virus.
British researchers discovered a marked difference in the way healthy individuals and newly diagnosed diabetics reacted to a virus called coxsackie B4.
If confirmed, it may mean that a vaccine could be developed to prevent the illness. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease which deprives the body of insulin, the essential hormone that controls blood sugar levels.
It usually begins in childhood, and affects as many as one in 200 people. If unmanaged, it can lead to blindness, kidney failure and heart disease.
Why the disease occurs has never been clear, but scientists suspect that a complex interaction between genes and environmental factors is involved.
The new study, backed by the charity Action Research, suggests that an over-active immune response to the coxsackie B4 virus (CVB4) may trigger diabetes.
The virus might cause the immune system to go into overdrive and start attacking and killing the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.
CVB4 causes typical flu-like symptoms, and most commonly affects children.
Several years ago a strain of the virus was recovered from the pancreas of a child dying from Type 1 diabetes.
