Issue 139 Item 1 New Test to Screen for Type 1 Diabetes Risk

New approach to predicting who is most at risk for type 1 diabetes by the use of a test to measure biological markers for destroyed beta cells. In the study on the cell test, researchers led by Rusung Tan of the British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, reported a potential new approach to predicting who is most at risk for type 1 diabetes. The study, published in the Jan. 15 issue of Journal of Clinical Investigation, involved mice so it remains unclear how well this test might work among humans.

Type 1 diabetes long has been thought an autoimmune disorder, where immune cells, geared to thwart infection, actually turn against the body’s own tissues. In this case, the white blood cells attack pancreatic cells, called beta cells, which produce insulin. Researchers said over time, so many beta cells can end up destroyed that a lack of insulin develops and diabetes is formed.

Tan and colleagues found a blood test to measure biological markers for these destroyed beta cells in mice and found the measurement forecast which animals would develop diabetes and which did not. In the test, a blood sample is stained with a fluorescent dye and any cells attacking beta cells also are stained. Then the blood sample is passed through a machine that counts the number of fluorescent cells. The more fluorescence, the greater the likelihood of diabetes.

Although the fluorescent dye is very specific, Tan said researchers still have concerns about the procedure.

"It may be that it is not sensitive, it cannot detect all the cells it is designed to detect," Tan told United Press International. The test seems to work well in mice, he said, but the sensitivity issues still need to be addressed in humans.

"This test offers hope," Dr. Eugene Barrett, president-elect of the American Diabetes Association and a professor of medicine at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, told UPI. "We’ve had some success with certain markets in the blood that can predict who is at risk."

What remains to be seen, Barrett explained, is how well the blood test works in humans because diabetes develops much more slowly in people than in mice. "This is going to be an exciting step in a long road, but every step is going to count," he said.