Importance of Zinc Transporter 8 Autoantibody in the Diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes in Latin Americans

There is a scarcity of data of zinc transporter-8 autoantibody (ZnT8A) on mixed populations such as Brazilian. Therefore, we evaluated the relevance of ZnT8A for type 1 diabetes (T1D) diagnosis and the role of ZnT8 coding gene (SLC30A8) in T1D predisposition. Patients with T1D (n = 629; diabetes duration = 11 (6–16) years) and 651 controls were genotyped for SLC30A8 rs16889462 and rs2466295 variants (BeadXpress platform). ZnT8 triple antibody was measured by ELISA; glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65A) and protein tyrosine phosphatase (IA-2A) autoantibodies by radioimmunoassay. Results: Znt8A was detected in 68.7% of recent-onset T1D patients and 48.9% of the entire patient cohort, similar to GAD65A (68.3% and 47.2%) and IA-2A (64.8% and 42.4%) positivities respectively. ZnT8A was the only antibody in 8.4% of patients. Znt8A and IA2A frequencies and titers were independent of gender and ethnicity, whereas GAD65A titers were greater in females. The diabetes duration-dependent decline in ZnT8A frequency was similar to GAD65A and IA-2A. The SLC30A8 rs2466293 AG + GG genotypes were associated with T1D risk in non-European descents (56.2% × 42.9%; p = 0.018), and the GG genotype with higher ZnT8A titers in recent-onset T1D: 834.5 IU/mL (711.3–2190.0) × 281 IU/mL (10.7–726.8); p = 0.027. Conclusion ZnT8A detection increases T1D diagnosis rate even in mixed populations. SLC30A8 rs2466293 was associated with T1D predisposition in non-European descents.