field- mouse cause diabetes

[dean_r_koontz]

i heard an extrordinary lecture about this today. the evidence presented:
field-mouse carry a virus that seems to give them diabetes. several diseases like korean bleeding feever (or something like that) and heart muscle inflamation have been linked to people being out in the wilds during years with a high population of field-mice. well there will always be field-mouse out there but the more field-mice the more cases of muscle inflamation, for example. now they've found this virus all gathered in a certain insulin releasing cell type in the mice which is making the insulin releasing cells die. in 8 out of 10 test subjects with diabetes they've managed to find antibodies against this virus, while only 1 out of 10 people without diabetes had the antibodies. any diabetics out there?

[dean_r_koontz]

korean bleeding feever and heart muscle inflamation have both been confirmed as being caused by viruses.

[dean_r_koontz]

soon it might be possible to treat type 2 diabetes with anti-virals. the guy also made the argument that in the future the term "auto-immune disease" would stop existing, since a lot of them or even ALL of them might be caused by viruses.

[DeviousJ]

That's kinda bizarre. Did they try whacking the virus in some human cells to see what it did?

[dean_r_koontz]

yeah it grows very easily in human cells and beta cells. you should have seen the graphs of field-mouse population and new cases of type 2 diabetes in slightly older people, two sinus waves with tops and bottoms only slightly phase shifted

[DeviousJ]

That does seem pretty damning. We need a field mouse apologist in here - ******!!

[dean_r_koontz]

according to him, type 1 and type 2 of diabetes are the same disease, only that the first one is caused by children getting infected very early, which leads to a very rapid progress of the celldeath of insuline producing cells, while type 2 arises because cells of teenagers and onwards are more resistant or something

[bardy]

would it be hereditary after a parent was infected

I mean my aunt was type 1 and her twin brother, my father, was type 2

[dean_r_koontz]

the argument he used was that people who are infected and get diabetes have a genetic predisposition for getting diabetes if the virus infects. perhaps they have insufficient immune defense, something on the cells that the virus can recognize and bind to or something.

[Warsaw]

Where was the study conducted? In Sweden? I wonder if all field mice around the world carry the same virus?

[dean_r_koontz]

it has been done on different kinds of field-mice here in sweden and patient at the hospital here, some of them diseased.

[Warsaw]

I miss your avatar.