, but the mechanism behind it isn’t known, although some have been proposed.
For example, some viruses may be able to infect the beta cells, changing them and triggering an autoimmune response. Alternatively, some parts of a virus may be so similar to the structure of beta cells that the immune system ends up fighting the virus and the insulin-secreting cell.Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday.To investigate the link, Ziegler and her colleagues monitored 885 children between the ages of 4 months and 2 years old, who were all identified as having at least a small risk of developing islet autoantibodies.
“We would love to see if vaccinating children from 6 months can prevent the autoimmunity that leads to type 1 diabetes,” says Ziegler. “We believe there’s very strong possibility that preventing this early infection could very much alter whether children develop the disease.”