Enteroviruses are increasingly implicated in the events that lead to autoimmunity in type 1 diabetes. The cover shows an image of an individual enterovirus generated by molecular modelling techniques using data derived from cryo-electron microscopy. In the current issue of Diabetologia (54: 2417−2420) Willcox et al. report that production of the enteroviral capsid protein, VP1, frequently occurs in islets that show evidence of increased endocrine cell proliferation. The authors propose that the establishment of a persistent enteroviral infection of beta cells may represent an initiating event that leads to changes facilitating the infiltration of immune cells. The immune cells then release mitogens that promote endocrine cell proliferation.
Cover credit: DR DAVID BHELLA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
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