Ricerc@Sapienza

A consistent group of subjects with autoimmune diabetes (AD) is affected by a slowly progressive form of the disease, known as Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA). This suggests that progression towards absolute insulin deficiency is not ineluctable. We hypothesize that LADA may offer a novel model to search for endogenous disease modifiers. These may be discovered by looking at differences between LADA and type 1 diabetes (T1D) in humoral features, proteomics, and in the clinical history of disease development. The aim of this study is to identify novel endogenous pathways of protection from disease progression in AD by carrying out a humoral, proteomic and phenotypic characterization of T1D and LADA.