Press information

April 26, 2007

Unexpected finding in diabetes infected laboratory rat

The renowned “diabetes rat”, involved in more than a thousand scientific studies, carries the so called Ljungan virus. The discovery was made by a research team from Sweden, USA and Germany. If the scientists are able to cure the rat, this would be a major step towards the ability to treat and prevent diabetes in humans.

In the mid-1970s it was established that a certain type of laboratory rat spontaneously develops juvenile or type1 diabetes. The rat was named the BB-rat, since it came from the “Biobreeding Laboratory”. Following a new article in the journal Diabetologia, it is now clear that the BB-rat carries the so called Ljungan virus. The research team that made the finding has previously shown that laboratory mice develop diabetes if infected with the Ljungan virus.

“The BB-rat spontaneously develops diabetes at the age of approximately two months. Until now the main theory has been that the phenomenon is best explained by genetics. These assumptions may now need to be revised”, said lead author Bo Niklasson, at Apodemus AB, a research company in Stockholm, Sweden.

“The new discovery is especially interesting, since the Ljungan virus has previously been found in lemmings and voles with diabetes in nature. We also know that the number of rodents covaries with the number of patients that develop diabetes in the same area”, said second author William Klitz at the Public Health Institute in Oakland, California.

While the new discovery does not prove that it is the Ljungan virus that causes diabetes in the BB-rat, scientists at Apodemus and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm are currently trying different types of anti-viral treatment against the Ljungan virus.

“If we succeed in preventing the BB-rat from developing diabetes, we will have learnt something very important. We know that stillbirths in humans are associated with the Ljungan virus and we believe that the virus also causes several chronic diseases among humans”, said Bo Niklasson.

For further information please contact:

Bo Niklasson, Physician, Professor and Research Director at Apodemus AB
Telephone: +46 708 23 23 23

William Klitz, senior researcher at the University of California, Berkley USA
Telephone: +510 643-1594

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The research company Apodemus AB discovered the Ljungan virus in the mid-1990s. The first findings were made among bank voles, the most common mammal in Scandinavia. The Ljungan virus has subsequently been found to exist and cause diseases among several animal species. Apodemus hypothesise that the Ljungan virus also causes several chronic diseases among humans.