The Link between Diabetes and Microbes
Fishes with a similar ability to produce hormones that mimic insulin have been found to contain four viruses by a team of researchers from Joslin Diabetes centre. The potential impact of these insulin species suggest that microorganisms can impact diabetes development and perhaps even autoimmune diseases and certain cancers.
Lead author, PhD Emrah Altindis mentions in the team’s paper that this discovery may lead to a new field called microbial endocrinology.
The team used bioinformatics, an interdisciplinary field between biology and computer science to study large databases containing sequences to analyze genetic structures that closely match human hormones and regulatory proteins. The research, published in PNAS — a journal, led to the use of synthesized versions of the insulin — like peptides that they discovered on mouse and human cells.
The investigation presented data that suggests that the peptides or rather the VILPs acted as hormones, ending to the human insulin receptions and receptors of hormones known as insulin — like growth factor one. The study mentions that the VILPs are part of the insulin family and are can be characterized as viral hormones.
Though the viruses that presented in the mouse don’t normally infect humans, a simple act of ingesting these fish may expose humans to them. Currently, more testing is to be done regarding the potential infectiousness of the cells or whether they can be absorbed through the gut.
Researchers are looking forward to the next step to see if they may be able to find other viruses that could produce hormones resembling humans.
This is the beginning of a long haul, there are currently thought to be more than 300,000 viruses which could infect or carried by mammals, only 7,500 of them have actually been sequenced. Hence the researchers’ confidence in finding more viral hormones, including insulin.
With this new knowledge, scientists can proceed to new realms that they never knew to consider about diabetes. Developments catalyzed by this research could have profound implications for the understanding and treatment of the disease.
