It has long been hypothesized that viral infections play a significant role in the development of type 1 diabetes. Researchers in Finland have been investigating this connection for over 25 years and now believe they have targeted the particular virus group that can trigger the disease. After developing a prototype vaccine the team is now moving to human clinical trials in 2018.

Though not as common as type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes it still affects millions of people worldwide. The disease generally begins in childhood and an estimated 80,000 new cases are diagnosed worldwide every year.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system destroys insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. Recent research suggests that enteroviruses could play a strong role in the onset of type 1 diabetes, with several studies showing that the presence of an enteroviral infection significantly increases the chance of a person developing the disease.

The causal relationship between an enteroviral infection and type 1 diabetes is still unknown, but one study suggests it could act as “a critical trigger to push an already dysfunctional metabolic equilibrium over the brink.”

A research group at the University of Tampere initially looked at the more than 100 different […]