2023-08-03 20:12:00
The consequences of the corona pandemic are still being felt. Even following an infection has been overcome, many of those affected suffer from secondary diseases. For example, several studies have shown that Covid-19 can promote type 2 diabetes. The metabolic disease is known to have many triggers: lack of exercise, obesity, unhealthy diet or hereditary predisposition. Type 1 diabetes, on the other hand, is more mysterious. However, researchers have now found that the autoimmune disease can also be related to a corona infection.
Type 1 diabetes usually develops in childhood. Little is known regarding the cause. The only thing that is clear is that it is an autoimmune reaction of the body once morest itself. The immune cells mistakenly attack the beta cells, which are located in the pancreas and are responsible for producing insulin. People with type 1 diabetes therefore have hardly any endogenous insulin. They have to inject the hormone throughout their lives to regulate their blood sugar levels. You can find out here what the exact difference is between diabetes type 1 and type 2 and what happens when both forms occur at the same time.
Can Corona trigger type 1 diabetes? Studies provide important information
However, this form of diabetes mellitus is relatively rare; almost 95 percent of diabetics have type 2 diabetes. Measured once morest the total population, only around 0.4 percent of Germans currently have type 1 diabetes. Around 3,100 new cases are added every year – with the corona pandemic, however, this number has increased significantly. A research group led by Clemens Kamrath from the Justus Liebig University in Giessen found that between January 2020 and June 2021 significantly more children and adolescents were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes than usual. Most of them were regarding three months following the peak of the pandemic New cases of type 1 diabetes reported. The study might not prove a direct connection. The results were published in the specialist magazine “Diabetes Care” published.
Only in 2023 was another study able to provide an indication that which was published on the specialist portal Jama. A research group from the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the TU Dresden evaluated the data from the Bavarian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. A possible connection was shown: Type 1 diabetes was diagnosed more frequently in children between the ages of two and twelve who already had corona. According to the experts, children following the corona infection have a 57 percent higher risk of developing type 1 diabetes than children who have not yet had Covid. The diabetes often developed in the same quarter as the infection, sometimes only in the following quarter.
The study results thus indicate that Covid-19 might trigger the autoimmune disease – but there is still no conclusive evidence. “We are careful with the interpretation of our results”, explains Ezio Bonifacio from the TU Dresden, co-author of the study. “But the virus might either promote the development of the autoimmunity underlying type 1 diabetes, or enhance an already existing autoimmunity and thus accelerate the destruction of insulin-producing beta cells.” Further studies are needed to elucidate the exact mechanism behind this.
Studies give hope: This is how type 1 diabetes might be delayed
The significance of the study data should also be viewed with caution. As the researchers emphasize, there was also a slight increase in diabetes in the group of children who did not have a corona infection. This might also be due to the fact that many infections are symptom-free and therefore go unnoticed. In addition, the data from the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians was recorded on a quarterly basis. It is therefore not possible to determine whether type 1 diabetes occurred before or following the corona infection if both diagnoses were made in the same quarter.
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The assumption is not entirely new, however. Penn State College of Medicine researchers had drawn similar conclusions. However, their meta-analysis did not distinguish between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. In addition, scientists have suspected for more than 40 years that viruses might be the true trigger of type 1 diabetes. Only for a long time there was not sufficient evidence for this. In 2012, Italian researchers discovered that influenza viruses might contribute to the development of type 1 diabetes. The investigations into the corona virus thus support this assumption.
And what is all this for? Type 1 diabetes cannot yet be cured. However, researchers are looking for ways to delay the onset of the disease. If there is sufficient evidence that viral diseases lead to diabetes, targeted vaccinations might possibly help. Children from families with type 1 diabetes might be protected at least temporarily with a flu or corona vaccination.
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