New autoantibodies help predict type 1 diabetes, reports a study in the September 2014 Diabetes journal. Serum samples from type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients and normal glucose tolerant patients were profiled with protein microarrays containing nearly 9,500 proteins. This work led to the identification of two autoantibodies—anti-EEF1A1 and anti-UBE2L3—that were expressed more abundantly in the type 1 diabetic patients relative to the other groups. These findings suggest new tools on the horizon to help improve the screening and diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.
For the life of me I still can't figure out the circular reasoning in these studies. They break the groups into cohorts, one group with T1. But how do they diagnose T1? It doesn't make sense to separate the cohorts based on the presence of autoantibodies. Does it?