Early-life malnutrition can cause long-term changes in gene expression.
Figure 1: Patients in Cameroon typically fail to follow through with their diabetes treatments, as treatment options are not affordable.
Type 5 Diabetes has recently emerged as a new form of diabetes from chronic malnutrition in fetal development or early childhood. Long-term malnutrition impairs pancreatic development and the pancreas's ability to produce insulin. This divergence is not caused by a mutation in the genome but rather by epigenetic changes, or changes in gene expression, that limit insulin production and the body's ability to regulate blood sugar.
In Cameroon, chronic undernutrition is more common in rural and low-income areas. Doctors in Cameroon began to notice something unusual with their diabetes patients: they have no autoimmune deficiencies, no obesity, and they are often young and thin. This lead researchers to identify a divergent form of diabetes, known as Type 5.
Properly treating diabetes in low-income countries has proven to be impossible with a month's wages covering one month of insulin for adult patients. International healthcare funding is geared toward communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis, and malaria. This leaves individuals with non-communicable diseases with less funding and no infrastructural support to afford care.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/health/diabetes-africa-cameroon-type-5.html
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12224508/
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