Type 1 diabetes mellitus and enterovirus linkage: search for associated etiopathology

Abstract

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is believed to have complex interplay between several enteroviruses (EVs) and host immune system disturbance induced or accelerated by viral pathogenesis. In the past two decades, there has been global upsurge in the incidence of childhood T1D, especially in those less than 5 years. Because of the ubiquity and persistence of EVs in human bowel and their tropism to pancreatic cells, they tend to express certain viral proteins that have propensity for genetic manipulation and activation of autoimmunity that could be potentially linked to T1D. In view of these, we present this review of existing literature in order to analyze the epidemiology and possible association between EV infections, host immune dysfunction, and development of autoimmunity or T1D with the view to encourage the investigation of EV infections and associated virus-induced islet cells autoimmunity and immunopathy in genetically predisposed children.

Keywords

• diabetes
• enterovirus infection
• immunopathology