Scientists are casting a wide, tightly woven net with the goal of catching the causes of type 1diabetes.Study sites around the world are screening 220,800 healthy babies for genes that put them at risk for type 1diabetes.

They expect to identify the genes in about 13,000 babies in this four-year screening. About half those babies will embark with their families on a 15-year journey that may help cure the disease.

“Our hope is to identify environmental factors that determine the risks for type 1 diabetes,” says Dr. Jin-Xiong She, director of the Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Genomic Medicine. “Once you know the risk factors, you can modulate the risk factors to prevent diabetes,” says Dr. She, who five years ago sat around a table with other diabetes researchers to discuss such research opportunities. Those conversations led to a request for applications from the National Institutes of Health to investigate environmental triggers of the disease that turn the body’s immune system on the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas.

A few dozen centers applied and six were chosen by NIH to meet again and devise a comprehensive plan for studying this expansive topic that includes nearly everything in child’s life, from the water he drinks to when he eats his first cookie.

“Risk factors for type 1 diabetes include two major components. One is the genetic factors and the other is the environmental factors. They are about equally important,” says Dr. She. “We have quite a few of the genes identified.” In fact, Dr. She and his colleague Dr. Cong-Yi Wang, molecular geneticist, reported in the August 2004 issue of Nature Genetics the discovery of the fourth gene, dubbed SUMO-4. Having these genes increases a child’s risk of developing type 1 diabetes tenfold.

But the environmental factors, which researchers such as Dr. She believe are responsible for the increasing incidence of the disease, are still elusive. “There are many suspects like cow’s milk, like coxsackie viral infection (cause of the common, painful and blistering hand, foot and mouth disease) that have been suggested as triggers for type 1 diabetes. But the literature is very controversial: some studies are for it, some are against it,” says Dr. She.

Related Links:

• Medical College of Georgia