Study: Type 2 Diabetes Linked to Bacteria in the Gut

4 Jun 2015 --- Bacteria responsible for common skin infections and food poisoning could also trigger type 2 diabetes, according to the latest research. Scientists in the US have found that exposure to Staphylococcus aureus bacteria causes hallmark symptoms of the disease in rabbits. 

The scientists now hope that their findings could lead to new anti-bacterial therapies or vaccines to prevent or treat this disease. In 2012 an estimated 1.5m deaths were directly caused by diabetes, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Professor Patrick Schlievert, who led the study, said: “We basically reproduced type 2 diabetes in rabbits simply through chronic exposure to the staph superantigen.” 

Obesity is a known risk factor for developing type2 diabetes, but being obese can also alter a person’s microbiome, which is the ecosystem of bacteria that colonise a person’s gut. 

Schlievert said: “What we are finding is that as people gain weight, they are increasingly likely to be colonised by staph bacteria – to have large numbers of these bacteria living on the surface of their skin.

“I think we have a way to intercede here and alter the course of diabetes. We are working on a vaccine against the superantigens, and we believe that this type of vaccine could prevent the development of type 2 diabetes.”

The study was published in the journal mBio.