Barbara Corkey, a Ph.D. professor emeritus of medicine and biochemistry at BUSM explained that previous studies have focused on the triggers, genes, and proteins that differentiate individuals with T1D from those without diabetes with a focus on the b-cell which create antibodies, as a target of immune destruction and blood glucose as the main abnormality.
She said that the team is focused on metabolic communication as an early instigator with the b-cell as an active participant together with the immune cells.
Corkey's research led her to generate the testable hypothesis that the induction of autoimmunity is a consequence of one or more major inflammatory events in individuals with susceptible human leukocyte antigens (molecules found on the surface of most cells in the body that play an important part in the body's immune response to foreign substances) phenotypes plus elevated sensitivity to cytokines (substances secreted by certain cells of the immune system) and free fatty acids (FFA), as per ANI reports.
According to Corkey's study, various illnesses and environmental agents that dramatically increase cytokine production or elevate FFA initiate autoimmune destruction in individuals with specific genetic features.
Therefore, early prevention should be aimed at decreasing elevated lipids and diminishing excessive simultaneous elevation of cytokines or cytokine- and lipid-induced immune cell proliferation," she added.
Corkey further believes that the characteristics which make individuals susceptible to autoimmune destruction could also apply to other autoimmune diseases such as toxic shock syndrome and possibly long COVID.
Among the estimated 8.4 million people living with Type 1 Diabetes across the globe in 2021, India ranked in the top ten countries with highest prevalence of the disease, said The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal's modelling study.
This number is predicted to increase to 13.5-17.4 million people living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) by 2040, the researchers said.
(With ANI inputs)
