The research of the Endocrinology unit UCBM in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London

18 May 2017 - A test capable of discovering, through a simple blood sample, if there is a real risk of getting type 1 diabetes could soon be available. An opportunity made possible thanks to the discovery of a particular antibody, called oxPTM-INS -Ab, capable of predicting the onset of the so-called 'children's diabetes' already in healthy subjects.

This is stated by a study coordinated by prof. Paolo Pozzili, Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases at theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, and by Dr Rocky Strollo, endocrinologist and researcher UCBM, in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London, just published in the scientific journal Diabetologia, the official organ of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). The work demonstrated the efficacy of the biomarker in 91 percent of cases. This could therefore be the indicator for predicting the onset of the disease that affects over 300 people in Italy alone, with a 3 percent annual growth in the number of young people diagnosed (source: Ministry of Health).

Type 1 diabetes

It is an autoimmune disease that leads the immune system to recognize the cells of the pancreas that produce insulin (beta-cells) as foreign and harmful and, therefore, to attack and destroy them, until causing an absolute deficit of this hormone in the organism. The disease, sometimes favored by genetic predispositions or exposure to environmental factors that have not yet been identified, such as probably viral infections, generally develops during the adolescent years, but can also appear in the neonatal age or in young adults: about 30 percent of cases of type 1 diabetes are diagnosed in adulthood. There is currently no definitive cure, other than surrogate insulin in subjects who have now lost functioning beta-cells in the pancreas.

Predictive signals up to 11 years before disease onset

The data collected by the 'ABIS' study (All Babies in Southeast Sweden) of the University of Linköping, which followed a population of over 20 subjects for about 17 years through blood samples taken periodically from birth, allowed the scholars UCBM to verify the possible presence in the blood of this auto-antibody - directed against a form of insulin modified by oxidative processes - together with that of the other four types of 'standard' biomarkers currently used for the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes .

Researchers have focused on this particular modified insulin, no longer recognized by the body as a native product and therefore 'bombarded' by the immune system, placing it as a new target of the autoimmune response in the so-called diabetes of children. Starting from this data, Professor Pozzilli's group evaluated the efficacy of the new biomarker on healthy subjects, followed up from the neonatal age.

“The ability – says Pozzilli – to indicate a future case of type 1 diabetes based on the presence of this auto-antibody in the blood was very high, identifying almost all cases. The results therefore suggest that this new auto-antibody could become an important ally in being able to predict which people are most at risk of contracting this form of diabetes, sporadic and so far unpredictable in time to avoid serious damage to the beta- pancreatic cells".

“This study – he adds Rocky Strollo, the first signature of the work – provides new information on the mechanisms underlying this form of diabetes, because it demonstrates that pancreatic autoimmunity can be induced by oxidative modifications of insulin and that this can happen many years before the clinical onset of the disease , even up to eleven."

>> For more details see the press release
>> Diabetes, the research UCBM (watch the video)