There does not appear to be a link between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and autoimmunity associated with the development of type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents, according to a research letter published online Aug. 5 in Journal of the American Medical Association.
Marian Reuers, MD, Ph.D., of the Barbara Davis Diabetes Center at the University of Colorado at Aurora, and colleagues proposed a cross-sectional screening for islet autoantibodies and antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in children and adolescents aged 1 to 18 years of participation in the Autoimmunity Screening for Kids study in Colorado and in children aged 1 to 10.9 years in the Frida study in Bavaria, Germany. The presence of multiple or single high-affinity islet autoantibodies, which carried a 50 and 30 percent risk of progression to clinical diabetes over five years, respectively, was assessed as a study outcome.
The researchers found that 32.3 percent of 4,717 Colorado youth and 6.1 percent of 47,253 Bavarian children had a previous infection with SARS-CoV-2. Multiple islet autoantibodies were found in 0.45 and 0.30 percent of Colorado and Bavarian children, respectively, and 0.55 and 0.11 percent of youth, respectively, were positive for a single high-affinity islet autoantibody. No difference was observed in the prevalence of multiple or single high-affinity islet autoantibodies between youth with and without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the two groups. After controlling for confounders, previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was not significantly associated with the presence of multiple islet autoantibodies or a single high-affinity islet autoantibody.
“Long-term follow-up of individuals with preexisting autoimmunity is needed to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 accelerates the progression to clinical diabetes,” the authors wrote.
Antibiotic use not associated with islet autoimmunity, celiac disease More information: Abstract/Full text
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