{"id":674889,"date":"2026-09-06T05:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T05:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/674889\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T05:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T05:05:13","slug":"type-1-diabetes-may-actually-be-two-different-diseases-massive-international-study-finds-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/674889\/","title":{"rendered":"Type 1 Diabetes May Actually Be Two Different Diseases, Massive International Study Finds : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

Identifying distinctive types of conditions<\/a> like diabetes<\/a> is helpful in two ways. <\/p>\n

It means treatments can be personalized more precisely to individuals, and gives researchers a better idea of how to make those treatments more effective going forward.<\/p>\n

When it comes to type 1 diabetes<\/a>, there are two genetic patterns called HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4 that are associated with a higher risk of the disease. However, while the end result is the same (type 1 diabetes), the early signs differ between the two patterns.<\/p>\n

To investigate further, researchers from the US and UK ran the first-ever genome-wide association study (GWAS) separating type 1 diabetes patients by these two genetic signatures (technically known as haplotypes).<\/p>\n

The purpose of a GWAS is to find areas of DNA potentially linked to a disease, and there were enough genetic differences between HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4 participants in a sample of 9,091 people with type 1 diabetes and 14,157 controls to suggest we may be looking at two distinct subtypes.<\/p>\n

The results have been published in Diabetologia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"GWASA GWAS (like this for kidney stone disease) associates specific genes with specific diseases. (Howles et al., Nat. Commun., 2019\/CC BY 4.0<\/a>) <\/p>\n

“Type 1 diabetes is a complex disease characterized by autoimmune destruction of beta cells, but the underlying etiology is not well understood,” write<\/a> the researchers in their published paper.<\/p>\n

“The timing of progression to clinical diabetes varies widely across individuals, ranging from very early in childhood to adult onset.”<\/p>\n

While the HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4 genetic profiles and early signs had hinted at two types of type 1 diabetes<\/a>, the new findings point to different biological machinery and mechanisms being involved as well.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n

The HLA-DR3 results pointed towards immune cells called mast cells<\/a>, linked to allergies and inflammation, which keep watch for potential infection and foreign invasion.<\/p>\n

With the HLA-DR4 genetic pattern, the body’s T cells<\/a> were more strongly implicated. These immune cells directly attack other cells when ordered to, and in the case of type 1 diabetes, are known to destroy the beta cells in the pancreas.<\/p>\n

“This reveals that type 1 diabetes in a DR3 and DR4 background may represent heterogeneous sub-forms of type 1 diabetes at the genetic level,” write<\/a> the researchers.<\/p>\n

\"Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n

To add some perspective, the researchers say the genes driving type 1 diabetes in HLA-DR3 cases compared to HLA-DR4 cases are as distinct and separate as they are when comparing schizophrenia<\/a> and bipolar disorder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And that brings us back to what we mentioned at the start: if type 1 diabetes can develop through different biological pathways, then separating treatments and treatment targets might be a more effective approach.<\/p>\n

“Given heterogeneity in genetic risk and disease mechanisms in non-DR3\/DR4 type 1 diabetes, effective prevention of type 1 diabetes may require distinct therapies in this group as well,” write<\/a> the researchers.<\/p>\n

These results now need to be tested further, to see if type 1 diabetes needs classifying in more detail<\/a> as a disease that can be caused by several overlapping sets of triggers rather than one single route.<\/p>\n

Knowing someone’s genetic background could help in figuring out the best treatment for them.<\/p>\n

Now that researchers know there might be a possible distinction in the build-up to type 1 diabetes, it can be taken into account in future studies. The results of clinical trials<\/a> of diabetes drugs, for example, could be separated by HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4 patients.<\/p>\n

Another possibility for future research is to follow type 1 diabetes<\/a> patients more closely over time, to see how the condition develops based on genetic profile and other factors, such as autoantibody development and environmental exposures.<\/p>\n

Related: This 70-Year-Old Diabetes Pill Might Also Slow Down Aging<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The results of our study should have wide application to the design of future studies,” write<\/a> the researchers.<\/p>\n

“DR3 and DR4 status could be considered in continued genetic association studies and risk prediction models of type 1 diabetes, for example, to understand risk variant interactions with HLA background.”<\/p>\n

The research has been published in Diabetologia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article was fact-checked by Peter Dockrill<\/a> and edited by Peter Dockrill<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Identifying distinctive types of conditions like diabetes is helpful in two ways. It means treatments can be personalized…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[18,135,19,17,808],"class_list":["post-674889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-msft-content"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117222357454460770","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}