TEDDY Update Highlights Progress on Type 1 Diabetes and Celiac Disease Research

Celiac.com 06/22/2020 - Since 2004 data collected prospectively by The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study group has helped researchers to better understand T1D, and associated autoimmune conditions, like celiac disease. TEDDY is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). 

Celiac disease and T1D share a number of genetic factors. Seeking to explain why some children with high-risk genes develop T1D or celiac disease, while most do not, the TEDDY team monitors study subjects for both T1D and celiac disease. 

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TEDDY research has already shown that genetically predisposed children who eat gluten at, or above, certain levels in early childhood, had higher rates of celiac disease. "An interesting finding from TEDDY has been how early the autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing cells begins–often in the initial two years of life," said study TEDDY co-chair Marian Rewers, MD, PhD, a professor of pediatrics and medicine and executive director of the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

The TEDDY study follows infants with high T1D risk factors for 15 years to look for certain beta-cell autoantibodies and diabetes. TEDDY has also looked at biomarkers that indicate faster or slower progression to diabetes after autoimmune destruction begins. "While T1D and celiac disease share a lot of genetic characteristics, there are intriguing differences in the ways these diseases develop and progress," says Dr. Rewers, adding that "TEDDY research and discovery will help drive the "design of future trials to prevent both T1D and celiac disease."

TEDDY is looking to uncover viruses and nutritional factors that work with genes to initiate destruction of the beta cells by the immune system, which is signaled by the appearance of islet autoantibodies. Ultimately, TEDDY investigators are looking to uncover a way to prevent both diabetes and celiac disease in children. 

The latest information from TEDDY highlights potential "triggers" for the autoimmune process that generates type 1 diabetes (T1D), and how those triggers engage  in children with with genetic risk factors for T1D. 

That information is highlighted in the "Update from the TEDDY Study" symposium today at the American Diabetes Association's (ADA's) 80th Virtual Scientific Sessions. 

Among TEDDY's latest findings are two new papers, Longitudinal Metabolome-Wide Signals Prior to the Appearance of a First Islet Autoantibody in Children Participating in the TEDDY Study; and Distinct Growth Phases in Early Life Associated With the Risk of Type 1 Diabetes.

Read the original press release at PRNewswire.com. Stay tuned for more on TEDDY and related stories.