DIABET1: Biomarkers for early diagnosis of diabetes 1

Medical need

Diabetes mellitus type 1 (DM1) is an autoimmune disease with no cure that leads to a progressive destruction of insulin-producing beta cells.

The evolution is progressive and goes through three stages:
- Appearance of antibodies, without insulinitis or disease.
- Onset of insulinitis, without hyper- or hypoglycemia.
- Debut of the disease, at this point the rate of beta cells is very low.

Description

Method for early diagnosis (prior to disease debut) of DT1, based on the mRNA expression level of two new markers.

The analysis is performed on a blood sample in which circulating lymphocytes are isolated. The method allows the results to be obtained quickly and affordably by quantitative PCR, a technique widely used in the health sector.

Results

A study was performed in 10 healthy patients and 18 patients with debuting DT1.

CD4+ T lymphocytes were isolated from peripheral blood and the expression of three cannabinoid receptors was analyzed by PCR.

Two of the receptors showed significant differences in their expression in patients with recent debut with respect to controls.