Diabetes can be caused by a virus

Viruses are truly insidious and sometimes unpredictable infectious agents. It turns out that some of them are capable of “confusing” insulin cells in the pancreas, which leads to a malfunction of the organ.

It is known that the development of type I diabetes starts with an autoimmune attack on the pancreas. And type II diabetes is a consequence of metabolic disorders, obesity, eating disorders, etc. At the same time, almost no one talks about the viral origin of the disease, although such information has existed for quite a long time: scientists have established that "diabetes viruses" belong to the Coxsackie virus infection from the enterovirus series. Infection with the Coxsackie virus is sometimes accompanied by mild clinical symptoms, but can also cause serious severe manifestations - in particular, myocarditis, pancreatitis and even such a complication as diabetes.

Researchers from the National Cancer Center of Spain have described the CVB4 virus, which can cause diabetes. The scientists introduced the infection into artificially formed insulin cells of the pancreas of rodents and humans. In addition, the structures that produce insulin were transplanted from humans to rodents and then the virus was introduced. It was discovered that CVB4 suppresses the protein substance URI, which controls various cell functions. After URI was suppressed, the Pdx1 gene, which is responsible for the location and identification of β-cells that synthesize insulin, was silenced in the cellular genome.

When the Pdx1 gene is switched off, β-cells lose their functional orientation, stop responding to metabolic signals, and stop producing insulin. In other words, the viral infection disorients the insulin cells of the pancreas. Again, after artificial stimulation of the production of the protein substance URI by the cells, they “come to their senses” and return to their functionality.

Scientists not only conducted research on cellular structures. They performed a kind of test of the connection between the activity of the Pdx1 gene and the protein component URI with a viral infection in the pancreas of patients suffering from diabetes. The assumption was confirmed: in patients with the virus, the protein substance URI and the Pdx1 gene were practically inactive. Thus, a similar scheme operates in the human body, which allows us to think about developing new antidiabetic drugs. New drugs should be aimed at expelling the virus from the pancreas (or destroying it) and activating the functional capabilities of the Pdx1 gene and the protein component URI. It is quite possible that such drugs will be relevant not only for the treatment of diabetes of viral origin, but also other etiological varieties of the disease.

By the way, diabetes type I can be caused by another viral cause: some viral agents have proteins similar in structure to insulin. When the immune system begins to attack the viral invasion, it simultaneously attacks the cells of the pancreas.

The scientists' work is described on the page