The hot news has spread around the world that scientists working on the study of diabetes have experimentally identified four new causes of this disease. Previously, it was well known that this ailment, which leads to a halt in the absorption of glucose by the human body, provokes the improper functioning of the insulin hormone (partially or completely ceases to perform its function of interacting with cells).
But, the new cause has a completely different nature – viral. This discovery makes it possible to hope that scientists will be able to study in more detail the specific mechanisms of the onset and development of the disease. Conducting research on the genome of the virus, scientists have identified four viral pathogens in the genome of which were found regions encoding insulin-like proteins.
These viruses feel most comfortable in fish, but their development and vital activity in other living organisms is not excluded. Initially, the tests were carried out on mice, later on humans. The experiment showed that virus cells act the same way with hormones in both variants.
Such a sensational discovery causes a lot of anxiety. It turns out that eating fish, which is included in the diet of most of the inhabitants of the planet, can quite easily lead to the onset of the development of the disease and potentially make a diabetic patient out of a completely healthy person.
But there is also a positive moment. The discovery of the viral nature of the disease could help develop a drug that would make diabetes an easily treatable disease.
Details of the study of the viral nature of diabetes mellitus
Before conducting the research, Ronald Kahn and his colleagues suggested that the autoimmune reaction in type XNUMX diabetes could be triggered by certain types of microorganisms that, in the course of their life, reproduce proteins that resemble insulin.
After that, the team of scientists began the scientific analysis of their vast genome database, consisting of several thousand virus samples. The main task at the first stage was the search for those species that resembled human DNA. As a result of painstaking work, they sorted out sixteen viruses in which a certain part of the genome was similar to segments of human DNA. And after that, out of 16, 4 were sorted out, which had the property of protein synthesis and would be similar to insulin.
The most interesting thing after that was that all four of these viruses were initially able to cause infections only in fish and had no effect on humans. Experts decided to check whether their vital activity, when penetrated into the human body, could eventually lead to diabetes mellitus. After all, potentially their peptides affect a person in the same way as insulin.
In the laboratory, the effect of the virus on human cells was tested. The previous assumption was confirmed, and after that the experiment was repeated on mice, after which the glucose level in their blood decreased as if they had been injected with regular insulin.
The head of the scientific project quite simply explains the causes of type XNUMX diabetes due to these viruses. According to him, after an infection enters the human body, the immune system begins to fight and produces antibodies to destroy the foci of the virus. But since some viral proteins are very similar to insulin, there is a high probability of an error in the body, in which the immune system will attack, in addition to the viral ones, its own cells, which are involved in the natural synthesis of insulin.
Scientists confirm the information that people very often face similar situations, but most are lucky and the immune system does not make a mistake. Traces of immunity resistance to such viruses can also be seen in the microorganisms contained in the intestines.