Article: Some viruses produce insulin-like hormones

[Webdog]

Article about analyzing research databases of viral genomic sequences to find viruses that produce peptides similar to human hormones and regulatory proteins.

They conclude some of these viruses could be a factor not only in diabetes, but metabolic disease, autoimmune disease, and cancer. Analyzing these viral peptides could lead to new treatments.

http://www.joslin.org/news/virus-can-produce-insulin-like-hormones-active-on-human-cells.html

Some viruses produce insulin-like hormones that can stimulate human cells—and have potential to cause disease.

BOSTON – (February 19, 2018) – Every cell in your body responds to the hormone insulin, and if that process starts to fail, you get diabetes. In an unexpected finding, scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have identified four viruses that can produce insulin-like hormones that are active on human cells. The discovery brings new possibilities for revealing biological mechanisms that may cause diabetes or cancer.

“Indeed, the discovery of the viral insulin-like hormones raises the question of what their role might be in diabetes, as well as autoimmune disease, cancer and other metabolic conditions,” says C. Ronald Kahn, MD, Joslin's chief academic officer and senior author on the paper.

“These viruses are definitely known to infect fish and amphibians, but they are not known to infect humans,” Kahn points out. “However, it's possible that humans get exposed to these viruses through just eating fish. Nobody has checked directly whether under some conditions the viruses could either infect cells or be at least partly absorbed through the gut intestine.”

“This research also opens up a new aspect to study in type 1 diabetes and autoimmunity,” he says. “It may be that these or similar microbial insulin-like molecules could be an environmental trigger to start the autoimmune reaction in type 1 diabetes.”