Studies Uncover Genes Boosting Type 2 Diabetes Risk
Mar. 23 -- THURSDAY, April 26 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists have found several new genes that appear to increase the risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
Researchers say these findings bring to 10 the number of genes suspected in increasing the odds for type 2 diabetes, the most common, obesity-linked form of the disease. Understanding how these genes contribute to the disorder may lead to new strategies for prevention and treatment. The studies appear in the April 26 online editions of Nature Genetics and Science.
"This is clearly a start in understanding the disease," said Dr. Larry Deeb, president for medicine and science at the American Diabetes Association. "Type 2 diabetes is multifactorial, there is not one gene associated with it, and yet we know it runs in families, so it has to be genetic."
Deeb is not sure how much the genetic risk adds to the propensity for developing the disease. Either having or not having the genetic risk is not a guarantee of getting or not getting the disease, he added.
"What society has to do to prevent type 2 diabetes is so non-medical -- diet and exercise," Deeb said. "These are the things we know people should do."
In the first paper in Nature Genetics, a team led by Dr. Kari Stefansson, CEO of deCODE Genetics, report on a new genetic risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
The researchers conducted a large survey in Iceland comparing the frequencies of several hundred thousand common genetic variants in healthy people against those who have the disease.
They found that the CDKAL1 gene was associated with type 2 diabetes. "It affects the secretion of insulin," Stefansson said. "So people with this variant secrete less insulin in response to glucose than people in the general population."
In addition, they saw the same association between type 2 diabetes and a variant in the CDKAL1 gene in other populations of Europeans and Han Chinese.
According to Stefansson, people with two copies of the risk variant were found to face a 50 percent increased risk of developing the disease when compared with people with only a single copy of the gene variant. About 25 percent of the population has this variant, Stefansson said.
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