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Dietary therapy may be sufficient for type 1 diabetes treatment

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 15, pages 85–87 (2018)Cite this article

There is compelling evidence that the gastrointestinal commensal microbiota is instrumental in shaping the functions of the immune system.1 The short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), mainly acetate, propionate and butyrate, which are the end products of dietary fibers after bacterial metabolism, act as an interface between the microbiota and immune cells.2 In a recent article in Nature Immunology, Mariño et al.3 reported that the levels of acetate and butyrate in the blood and feces of non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice, a mouse model of human type 1 diabetes (T1D), are inversely correlated with the disease. The NOD mice were completely protected from the development of diabetes by the administration of a combination of the acetate- and butyrate-yielding diets. Such SCFAs inhibited pathogenic effector T cells and induced CD4+Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs), thereby contributing to the unprecedented therapeutic effect.3 The findings of this study may open a new avenue to prevent and treat patients with T1D with medicinal food or nutraceuticals rather than conventional pharmaceutics.

In T1D, insulin-producing β-cells in the pancreas are destroyed by pathogenic immune cells. Although the exact mechanisms triggering the onset of T1D remain to be fully understood, current evidence indicates that both genetic and environmental factors are implicated.4 There is also evidence to indicate that microRNAs regulate the immunopathology of diabetes.5 Recent studies support the notion that dietary factors and gut microbiota, as well as their interplay with the immune system, play a crucial role in the development of T1D.6, 7 As shown by Mariño et al.,3 SCFAs, including acetate and butyrate, act as the link between the diet, gut microbiota and immune cells in the development of T1D. In agreement with this observation, another study of NOD mice also found that susceptibility to diabetes was correlated with reduced fecal levels of SCFAs.8

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Joost J. Oppenheim for his critical review of this article. This study is funded by the University of Macau under the grants MYRG2016-00023-ICMS-QRCM and MYRG2017-00120-ICMS, and the Science and Technology Development Fund of Macao SAR (FDCT) under grant 014/2015/A1.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, 999078, China

    Shuoyang Liu & Xin Chen

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Correspondence to Xin Chen.

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Liu, S., Chen, X. Dietary therapy may be sufficient for type 1 diabetes treatment. Cell Mol Immunol 15, 85–87 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2017.56

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