Metabolic Genetics Research Paves Way to Treating Diabetes and Obesity

Diabetes is a problem with your body that causes blood glucose levels to rise higher than normal. If you have Type 2 diabetes, your body does not use insulin properly, which is called insulin resistance. Over time, your body isn't able to keep up and can't make enough insulin to keep your blood glucose at normal levels. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes found in people today, affecting around 29 million people in the US alone. Of the people diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, about 80 to 90 percent are also diagnosed as obsess. By breaking down a complex condition, such as Type 2 diabetes and obesity, into its metabolic proteins and processes, it has been found that by examining certain proteins, along with the genes that encode them, that contribute to said condition scientist can come up with new drugs that target the metabolic processes that aren’t working correctly.

Jennifer E. Below, PhD, of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health stated, “In fact, genes that affect the same process at the protein level can end up influencing multiple traits in tandem.” After working with several colleagues, Dr. Below found that genes that control someone’s circadian cycle affect sleep quality and have the possibility of putting them at risk for diabetes. "Findings such as this highlight the importance of capturing the array of effects of genes, rather than treating each analysis as independent. Traits don't exist in silos; they are richly connected and interacting, and we benefit by acknowledging this in our genetic analyses," Dr. Below said.

Research was focused on a community where Type 2 diabetes and obesity rates have not changed much over the past few decades. The researchers sequenced the genomes of over 1,400 people and focused in on relationships between traits that affect diabetes and obesity, allowing them to pick apart the functions of lifestyle and environmental factors, incorporating how the traits affect each other. With further research, Dr. Below looks forward to examining families to look over the rare genetic variants that could be present in larger numbers than in the general population, some of which could have a huge impact on disease.

This article caught my attention because my grandmother had Type 2 diabetes, though was not obese.  It is quite exciting that researchers are using metabolic genetics to find new ways of treating those with these conditions. This research has the potential of helping millions, seeing as so many people are affected by these conditions today, and for that reason I can’t wait to see what further research can bring.

Article Link          Related Article