About
Knut Dahl-Jørgensen
Position: Professor
Place of work: Unit Endocrinology and Diabetes, Department of Paediatrics, Oslo University Hospital Ullevål
E-mail: knut.dahl-jorgensen@medisin.uio.no
Phone: +47 22118765 / +47 92233550
Current research focus
My research group – Childhood diabetes – has four main research areas in both translational research and clinical research of type 1 diabetes.
The first area of our group has been diabetes late complications. We have long term clinical studies on microvascular complications and the influence of glycemic control and advanced glycation (The Oslo Study). Recently the risk of early atherosclerosis in childhood onset type 1 diabetes has been the focus in several of our studies, with measurement of vessel wall thickness (IVUS, IMT, MRI) and vessel elasticity, and biochemical markers, as well as clinical data and risk factors. I am co-PI with Hanna Dis Margeirsdottir of the 10 years follow up of the prospective study “Atherosclerosis in Childhood Diabetes” has now been completed and results are soon to be published. The project aims to develop a new risk score for CVD in childhood onset type 1 diabetes.
In our large, nationwide clinical studies, now as part of the Childhood Diabetes Registry, we focus on important issues as intensified insulin treatment and pumps, diabetic nephropathy, diet, physical activity, quality of life and psychosocial problems and eating disturbances (together with Skrivarhaug’s Group). I participate as medical Co-investigator in Line Wisting’s project “The Diabetes Body Project”.
The main focus the last years has been the etiology and prevention of type 1 diabetes and autoimmune diseases, especially focusing the role of viruses and the interaction with the immune system in pancreatic and thyroid tissue samples. The last years we have succeeded in detecting a low grade persistent enterovirus infection in the insulin producing pancreatic islets of patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes, and also in the thyroid of patients with newly diagnosed Graves’Disease. This strongly indicates that viruses are important for the development of autoimmune diseases.
The DiViD study has got worldwide attention for its unique collection of pancreatic biopsies in live young adult patients at the onset of type 1 diabetes. We have signed material transfer and research collaboration contracts with nearly 20 international, highly recognized laboratories. We actively collaborate with the ENT1DEP EU-consortium, the INNODIA EU-consortium and the nPOD consortium. We have published >40 peer-reviewed articles on several pathogenic mechanisms for type 1 diabetes. We detected a low-grade persistent infection with live, replicable enteroviruses in the pancreas of all cases and only ten percent of non-diabetic controls. Following this virus detection, he started the DiViD Intervention Trial to test the effect of antiviral treatment in maintaining endogenous insulin production in young newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes patients. The study was a phase-II, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel-group trial, where 96 children aged 6-15 years, were randomly assigned to receive oral antiviral treatment with pleconaril and ribavirin, or placebo for 6 months, started less than 3 weeks after diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. The primary endpoint was residual insulin production (C-peptide AUC) at 12 months which was found to be significantly higher in the group that received antiviral medication compared to the group that received the placebo. The results were published in Nature Medicine. We are now partners in a new EU-consortium ENT1DEP further studying the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes based on our biopsies and biobank. We now will start a new trial “Intensified beta cell rescue at onset of type 1 diabetes” using a combination treatment of antivirals, anti-inflammatory drugs and hybrid closed loop insulin pumps. The trial is funded by JDRF and Novo Nordisk Foundation. We also plan a new trial to prevent type 1 diabetes using antiviral drugs (The Nordic DiViD Prevention Trial).