Rotavirus Infection May Accelerate Type 1 Diabetes in Mice

Type 1 diabetes is a common autoimmune disease that occurs when insulin-producing pancreatic cells are selectively destroyed. Rotaviruses are the major causative agents of severe, dehydrating diarrhea in infants and children and they have been previously implicated in the exacerbation of type 1 diabetes development.

Nonobese diabetic mice have been shown to develop a similar form of autoimmune diabetes to that of human type 1 diabetes making them an ideal model candidate. In the study nonobese diabetic mice up to 12 weeks old were inoculated with murine rotaviruses and the rhesus monkey rotavirus. Following infection results showed that diabetes onset was significantly accelerated. Researchers also observed that exposure of nonobese diabetic mice to mouse rotavirus in a natural experiment also resulted in accelerated diabetes.

"These data provide the first evidence that rotavirus infection can accelerate diabetes development in an animal model," say the researchers. -American Society for Microbiology