An Association of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Infection With Type 2 Diabetes

Although the primary cause of type 2 diabetes is unknown, two breakthroughs have been made regarding its development (1). First, insulin resistance in muscle is the earliest detectable defect in people in whom type 2 diabetes will later develop. Second, β-cell function has to be abnormal before hyperglycemia develops. One of the risk factors for diabetes development might be virus infection (2). Preexisting hepatitis C virus infection may increase the risk for type 2 diabetes (3,4). Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) has been recognized as a potential pathogen of cardiovascular diseases. The presence of antibodies to HSV-1 is reported to be associated with an increase in the risk of incident myocardial infarction and coronary heart death (5,6). Type 2 diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality (7) and is recorded as a coronary artery disease risk equivalent (8). In this study, we attempted to investigate the potential relationship between HSV-1 infection and type 2 diabetes. All subjects were consecutive inpatients at Beijing Fu Wai Heart Hospital. Diabetes was diagnosed as follows (9): patients who had overnight fasting plasma glucose ≥7.0 mmol/l (126 mg/dl) …