Latent autoimmune diabetes in adults

Slowly evolving immune-mediated diabetes, or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA), is an autoimmune disease. It is a form of type 1 diabetes (T1D) that first appears in adulthood, rather than childhood or adolescence. Due to the fact that T1D most commonly first appears in childhood and adolescence, and was known as "juvenile diabetes" before the 1970s, LADA often gets mistaken for being type 2 diabetes (T2D), which is a metabolic disorder rather than an autoimmune disease. The concept of LADA was first introduced in 1993, though sometimes referred to as type 1.5 diabetes, it is defined under the rubric of T1D by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) as an autoimmune form of diabetes. Studies have shown that LADA patients have certain types of antibodies against the insulin-producing cells, and that these cells stop producing insulin more slowly than in typical T1D patients. Since many people develop the disease later in life, it is often misdiagnosed as type 2 diabetes.

LADA appears to share genetic risk factors with both T1D and T2D but is genetically distinct from both. Within the LADA patient group, a genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity has been observed with varying degrees of insulin resistance and autoimmunity.