Patients with LADA – a form of autoimmune type 1 diabetes in adulthood – can be distinguished from patients with non-autoimmune type 2 diabetes by means of the antibody reaction affinity to the enzyme glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD). Scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen have reported in the journal Diabetes Care that high-affinity GAD antibodies are found in patients who produce only a little of their own insulin and who will require insulin therapy after only a relatively short time.

LADA (latent autoimmune diabetes in adults) is a form of type 1 diabetes in adulthood. Like the childhood form, the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas are destroyed by the body's own immune system. The progression of the illness is relatively slowly, however, with clinical manifestations not appearing until after the age of 30 and the patients not yet requiring insulin therapy to control blood sugar levels at the beginning of the disease. It is therefore often difficult to differentiate between LADA and type 2 diabetes.