Researchers from Hong Kong and Shanghai have identified a genetic marker for diabetes in the Chinese population, affecting 80% of citizens. According to the scientists from the Chinese University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, their discovery could help to improve the nation’s wellbeing with improvements in the treatment and prevention of the disease.
The 80% of the Chinese population who had the genetic marker had an 18% higher risk of getting diabetes, and also tended to develop the disease at a younger age. This is according to a study of the genome of more than 10,000 Chinese diabetes patients in Hong Kong and Shanghai over the past five years. Professor Ronald Ma Ching-wan from the Chinese University’s endocrinology and diabetes division explained, ‘Healthy people who carry the marker have an increased risk of diabetes. Their insulin-secreting cells do not function as well [as others without the marker].’
The team is now working on genetic tests to identify those at risk, as the wellness of these people could benefit from early preventative action. Professor Juliana Chan Chung-ngor, director of the Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, commented, ‘When a person is found with this marker, we may encourage him to change his lifestyle or to consider early medication to control the risk of getting the disease.’
Since 2007, Chan explained, roughly 70 diabetes-related genetic markers have been identified in people of European descent, but as studies only began to target Asians a few years ago, only three or four genetic markers for diabetes have been found in the Chinese population so far. According to Chan, the marker affects the PAX4 gene on chromosome 7 and has also been identified in East Asian and European populations, but the relationship was the most obvious in Chinese people.
In Hong Kong, one in 10 people suffer from diabetes and, in recent years, there has been a trend of people developing the disease at a younger age, meaning that their whole lives are affected. Ma explained that though the genetic marker they discovered indicates those who are more likely to develop diabetes; whether or not carriers of the marker actually have the disease will also depend on other factors such as lifestyle.
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