Scientists Link 12 More Genes To Diabetes
An international team of scientists said they have found 12 new gene links that offer important clues to how the chronic disease diabetes works.
The researchers said their findings would not only improve understanding of what is behind type 2 diabetes, but also suggest new biological processes that can be explored as possible targets for new medicines.
"The signals we have identified provide important clues to the biological basis of type 2 diabetes. The challenge will be to turn these genetic findings into better ways of treating and preventing the condition," Mark McCarthy of the center for human genetics at Oxford University, who led the study, told Reuters.
Type 2 diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to adequately use insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas, to control glucose levels produced by food. Sugar levels rise and can damage the eyes, kidneys, nerves, heart and major arteries.
The disease is reaching epidemic levels as rates of obesity rise. About 180 million people around the globe now have diabetes.
The new identification of the 12 genes brings the total number of genetic regions linked with type 2 diabetes to 38. The team said the genes they found tend to be involved in the working of pancreatic cells that produce insulin and in the control of insulin’s action in the body.
The scientists said each of the genes carried only a small effect on diabetes risk.Â
However, McCarthy said one particularly important theme found was that several of the genes seem to be important in controlling the number of pancreatic beta-cells a person has.
McCarthy said that the result of beta-cells producing insulin in the pancreas would help settle a long-standing puzzle about the role of beta-cell numbers in type 2 diabetes. He said that it also "points to the importance of developing therapies that are able to preserve or restore depleted numbers of beta-cells."
The researchers used gene-sequencing technology to compare the DNA of over 8,000 people with type 2 diabetes with about 40,000 people without the condition at almost 2.5 million places across the genome.
Jim Wilson of the University of Edinburgh said another interesting finding was that the diabetes susceptibility genes also contain variants that increase the risk of other unrelated diseases, such as skin and prostate cancer, heart disease and high cholesterol.
"This implies that different regulation of these genes can lead to many different diseases," he told Reuters.
The researchers study was published in Sunday’s Nature magazine.
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