April 26, 2024

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Scientists identify 117 genes that may lead to type 2 diabetes

Scientists identify 117 genes that may lead to type 2 diabetes



 

Scientists identify 117 genes that may lead to type 2 diabetes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 37.3 million Americans have diabetes. Ninety-five percent of these people had type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes (also known as non-insulin-dependent diabetes or adult-onset diabetes) is caused by the body’s poor use of insulin.

This long-term chronic disease causes excess sugar to circulate in the blood. High blood sugar levels can eventually lead to cardiovascular, neurological and immunological problems.

 

Scientists identify 117 genes that may lead to type 2 diabetes

 

 

There is currently no cure for type 2 diabetes, although weight loss, healthy eating and exercise can help people manage the condition.

The exact circumstances of type 2 diabetes are unknown, however, researchers have recently discovered a genetic link to acquiring the disease.

 

An international team of scientists, including genetic epidemiologists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst), is conducting an ongoing study in diverse populations around the world that sheds new light on how genes contribute to type 2 diabetes.

 

The study was published May 12 in Nature Genetics . “Our findings are important because we are moving in the direction of using genetic scores to measure a person’s diabetes risk,” said co-author Cassandra Spracklen, assistant professor of biostatistics and epidemiology in the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences. 

 

 

Scientists identify 117 genes that may lead to type 2 diabetes

 

 

Andrew Morris, Professor of Statistical Genetics at the University of Manchester, and Professors Mark McCarthy and Anubha Mahajan at the University of Oxford, co-led a meta-analysis of 122 different genome-wide association studies (GWAS) by the DIAMANTE (Meta-Analysis of Diabetes Cross-Ethnic Association Studies) consortium.

 

“Type 2 diabetes is a life-changing disease whose global prevalence has quadrupled over the past 30 years, affecting approximately 392 million people in 2015,” Morris said.

 

The research is an important step toward the ultimate goal of identifying novel genes and understanding the biology of the disease, which has the potential to help scientists develop new treatments.

 

It is also an important milestone in the development of a “genetic risk score” to identify those who are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, regardless of their demographic background.

 

The meta-analysis compared the DNA of nearly 181,000 people with type 2 diabetes and 1.16 million people without the disease.

Genome-wide association studies search the entire human genome for sets of genetic markers called single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs, looking for genetic differences between people with and without a disease.

The technique allows scientists to target the parts of the genome involved in disease risk, which can help pinpoint the genes that cause disease.

 

However, the largest genome-wide association study of type 2 diabetes in history involved DNA in people of European descent, which limits understanding of the progression of the disease in other population groups.

 

To address this bias, scientists from the DIAMANTE consortium collected the world’s most diverse genetic information on the disease, with nearly 50 percent of individuals from East Asian, African, South Asian and Hispanic populations.

 

“To date, more than 80 percent of such genomic studies have been performed in people of white European ancestry, but we know that scores developed specifically in individuals of one ancestry are not It worked.”

 

The new paper builds on previous research by Spracklen to identify genetic associations with type 2 diabetes in people of East Asian ancestry and to determine the prevalence of diabetes-related traits (fasting glucose, fasting insulin, HbA1c) in multi-ancestry populations. Genetic association.

 

“Because our study included people from many different parts of the world, we now have a more complete picture of how genetic risk patterns for type 2 diabetes differ across populations,” McCarthy said.

 

Mahajan added: “We have now identified 117 genes that may contribute to type 2 diabetes, 40 of which have not been reported before. This is what we feel this constitutes an important step in understanding the biology of this disease. reason.”

 

The international study was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health, Wellcome and the UK Medical Research Council.

 

 

 

 

Scientists identify 117 genes that may lead to type 2 diabetes

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