In this month’s podcast, QuickNews looks at a new Lancet study, “Non-autoimmune, insulin-deficient diabetes in children and young adults in Africa.” In this study, researchers report that a significant subset of what has previously been classified as Type 1 diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa may in fact be a distinct, novel form of the disease.
The individuals in this subset did not exhibit the typical autoimmune markers (islet autoantibodies) usually found in classic Type 1 diabetes in other parts of the world. The researchers instead identified a novel, non-autoimmune, insulin-deficient subtype of diabetes that is also distinct from Type 2 diabetes.
Further evidence of this new subtype was found in Black individuals in the USA, albeit less frequently, but not in White individuals. The discovery throws a spotlight on the heterogeneity of diabetes diagnoses in sub-Saharan Africa, and points to the need to consider alternative causes and explore new prevention and treatment strategies for this distinct form of the disease.
