In the diagnosis of diabetes, antibody test are used to assess the risk factor, need for insulin, or type of diabetes the patient suffers from. Type 1 diabetes is a genetic autoimmune disease with specific autoantibody markers that are not found in type 2 patients. Antibodies are proteins produced by the body to fight infection. When these antibodies attack the body’s own cells they are referred to as autoantibodies. Autoantibodies to glutamate decarboxylase (GAD), islet antigen-2 (IA), insulin, and zinc transporter-8 are characteristic of type 1 diabetes.
Genetics and the Presence of Diabetes Antibody
Although genetic factors account for most cases of type 1 diabetes, there have been cases of identical twins, with identical genes, where one twin is diabetic and the other healthy. The prediction for inheriting diabetes is based on the presence of the genes HLA-DR3 or HLA-DR4 that are mostly found in whites. There are many theories about the environmental factors that may trigger diabetes, as genes alone don’t guarantee diagnosis. One theory is cold weather as it is more common in locations with cold climates. Another possibility is virsuses that might trigger diabetes antibody reactions. Nutrition is another factor with statistics showing that people who are breastfed and eat solid foods at a later age are less likely to develop the disease.
Diabetes Antibody Test
The first Diabetes Antibody Standardization Program (DASP) aimed to assess the general implementation of assay methods and evaluate the World Health Organization’s (WHO) reagent standard for antibodies to GAD and IA-2. The DASP used 46 laboratories from 13 countries and coded sera from 50 patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes as well as 50 healthy blood donors. Using the WHO standards for testing, the results of IA-2 testing were found to give good specificity for type 1 diabetes, making them suitable for risk assessment in individuals predisposed to the disease.
The presence of autoantibodies is detectable before the onset of symptoms and clinical diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in adults over 30. These factors define patients with latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA). Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults is a subgroup of the individuals with type 1 diabetes and is marked by the slow autoimmune destruction of beta cells in the pancreas. LADA is a genetic disorder that is often misdiagnosed as adult onset non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) that is not obesity related before the proper diagnosis is made. Diagnosis can be made using a GAD antibody test using a blood sample however the actual benefit of antibody testing to patients is still questioned in the research community as there are no preventative measures for type 1 diabetes.
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