Detection of Common Viruses Using the Polymerase Chain Reaction to Assess Levels of Viral Presence in Type 1 (Insulin‐dependent) Diabetic Patients

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Abstract
The polymerase chain reaction was used to detect a range of common viruses in the peripheral blood of Type 1 diabetic and non‐diabetic control patients in order to identify any abnormal viral presence, with possible roles in the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes. Peripheral blood from 17 newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetic patients, 38 Type 1 diabetic patients with disease of longer duration, and 43 age and sex matched non‐diabetic controls was obtained. Samples were screened for cytomegalovirus, Epstein‐Barr virus, enterovirus (including coxsackie), and mumps virus. Cytomegalovirus was detected in control patients only (5 %), Epstein‐Barr virus was detected equally in newly diagnosed and control patients (12%), and enterovirus was detected slightly more frequently in diabetic than non‐diabetic patients (41% and 31%, respectively). Mumps virus was not detected in any of the samples. It is concluded that Type 1 diabetic individuals are neither more prone to persistence of common viruses nor to more frequent acute infections with the viruses tested for than non‐diabetic individuals. If common viruses are involved in the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes then they act either as non‐specific agents to which the host has abnormal immune responses, or, the diabetogenic viruses are eliminated from the body by the time of disease diagnosis.