Link between Type I Diabetes and Coxsackie B Virus

I found this article particularly interesting because Arden was diagnosed with the Coxsackie virus prior to her diagnosis with type I diabetes. I was wondering how many of you also saw Coxsackie before type I?

The following is from The Scotsman.

A SPECIFIC virus family has been implicated in the development of Type 1 diabetes, raising the prospect of vaccinations against the disease. -

• by JOHN VON RADOWITZ

Scientists are encouraged by data from two studies that show a clear link between the condition and group B coxsackieviruses, which are known to damage insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

The potential breakthrough relates to type 1 diabetes which affects around 400,000 people in the UK, 29,000 of whom are children.

Researchers believe that, in time, it may be that with screening and a vaccine, they could prevent a proportion of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease caused by the body’s defences destroying insulin-producing beta cells. But what triggers the extreme immune reaction in the first place has been an unanswered question.

Suspicion has fallen on enteroviruses, one of the most common infective agents in humans. They include the virus responsible for the common cold, as well as those responsible for polio and viral meningitis.

The new study narrowed the diabetes culprit down to one particular enterovirus population known as group B coxsackieviruses.

The remainder of this article a valuable read and can be found here.