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A new discovery could change how Type 1 diabetes is diagnosed and managed in individuals of African Descent, say the researchers.
Type 1 diabetesWhere the beta cells producing insulin in the pancreas cease to work in childhood or the young adult, has always been attributed to an autoimmune process in which the immune system produces so-called autoantibodies that wrongly attack the pancreas.
However, a study involving 894 volunteers with youth diabetes in Cameroon, Uganda And South Africanoted that 65% did not have the usual autoantibodies generally observed in people with type 1 diabetes in other parts of the world.
They also did not have the genes that generally predisposed to the disease, or characteristics consistent with other types of known diabetes, such as type 2 and diabetes linked to malnutrition.
“This suggests that many young people in this region have a different form of type 1 diabetes and is not of autoimmune origin,” said the Chief of the Dana Dabelea study of the Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus University.
By comparing data to studies in the United States, researchers have found that 15% of black Americans diagnosed with type 1 diabetes had a form of disease similar to patients in sub-Saharan Africa, characterized by negative auto antibodies and a low genetic risk score, according to a Diabetes Lancet and endocrinology ratio.
White Americans with DT1, however, showed the typical autoimmune model, and even if they did not have detectable auto antibodies, their genetics have always indicated autoimmune diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes symptoms
NHS
The most common symptoms of type 1 diabetes are:
- pee more than usual
- feel very thirsty
- Feel very tired
- lose weight quickly without trying to
Other symptoms may include:
- blurred vision
- Breath that smells sweet or fruity (like a dissolving of nail polish or pear candies)
- Cups and injuries take longer to heal
- Get frequent infections, such as chief
The clinicians of certain parts of Africa had long suspected that some children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes did not quite correspond to the standard profile, the researchers said.
Most studies to date have focused on white Western populations, overlooking regional and genetic diversity in the presentation of the disease, they noted.
“These results are an awakening,” said the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Research Unit, the study professor, Professor Moffat Nyirenda of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Uganda.
“They question our hypotheses on type 1 diabetes and show that the disease can present themselves differently in African children and adolescents. We have urgently deepened our surveys on organic and environmental factors stimulating this form of diabetes and guarantee that our diagnostic and treatment approaches are capable of the objective in African areas. “
