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Biomarkers of β-Cell Stress and Death in Type 1 Diabetes

  • Pathogenesis of Type 1 Diabetes (A Pugliese, Section Editor)
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Abstract

The hallmark of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a decline in functional β-cell mass arising as a result of autoimmunity. Immunomodulatory interventions at disease onset have resulted in partial stabilization of β-cell function, but full recovery of insulin secretion has remained elusive. Revised efforts have focused on disease prevention through interventions administered at earlier disease stages. To support this paradigm, there is a parallel effort ongoing to identify circulating biomarkers that have the potential to identify stress and death of the islet β-cells. Whereas no definitive biomarker(s) have been fully validated, several approaches hold promise that T1D can be reliably identified in the pre-symptomatic phase, such that either β-cell preservation or immunomodulatory agents might be employed in at-risk populations. This review summarizes the most promising protein- and nucleic acid-based biomarkers discovered to date and reviews the context in which they have been studied.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NIH grants UC4 DK104166 (to R.G.M and C.E-M.), DK093954 (to C.E-M.), K08 DK103983 (to E.K.S), VA Merit Award I01 BX001733 (to C.E-M.), JDRF grant SRA-2014-41 (to C.E.-M.), a JDRF postdoctoral fellowship (to F.S.), and support from the Ball Brothers Foundation and the George and Frances Ball Foundation. Work in the laboratory of RGM is also supported by NIH grants R01 DK60581 and R01 DK105588. The contents of this article are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government, or the JDRF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Raghavendra G. Mirmira, Emily K. Sims & Farooq Syed

  2. Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, I635 Barnhill Drive, MS 2031, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Raghavendra G. Mirmira & Carmella Evans-Molina

  3. Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Raghavendra G. Mirmira & Carmella Evans-Molina

  4. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Raghavendra G. Mirmira & Carmella Evans-Molina

  5. The Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Research, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Raghavendra G. Mirmira, Emily K. Sims, Farooq Syed & Carmella Evans-Molina

  6. Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Raghavendra G. Mirmira

  7. The Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Carmella Evans-Molina

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Raghavendra G. Mirmira, Emily K. Sims, Farooq Syed, and Carmella Evans-Molina declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Pathogenesis of Type 1 Diabetes

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Mirmira, R.G., Sims, E.K., Syed, F. et al. Biomarkers of β-Cell Stress and Death in Type 1 Diabetes. Curr Diab Rep 16, 95 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-016-0783-x

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