According to study principal investigator Mark McCarthy of the Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, ‘the 10 gene regions we have shown to be associated with type 2 diabetes are taking us nearer a biological understanding of the disease’. He said in a university news release that ‘It is hard to come up with new drugs for diabetes without first having an understanding of which biological processes in the body to target. This work is taking us closer to that goal.’
The study was led by researchers from the University of Oxford, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and the University of Michigan, who looked at almost 35,000 type 2 diabetics’ DNA, as well as the DNA of approximately 115,000 people without the disease. They discovered that the new gene regions where DNA changes could be linked to people’s risk for diabetes, and two of these regions showed different effects depending on gender. No one won the battle of the sexes, however, as one region was associated with greater risk for the disease in men, while the other was linked to increased risk in women.
‘By looking at all 60 or so gene regions together we can look for signatures of the type of genes that influence the risk of type 2 diabetes,’ McCarthy explained. ‘We see genes involved in controlling the process of cell growth, division and aging, particularly those that are active in the pancreas where insulin is produced. We see genes involved in pathways through which the body’s fat cells can influence biological processes elsewhere in the body. And we see a set of transcription factor genes — genes that help control what other genes are active.’
He concluded by saying that with further investigation ‘Not only will we be able to look for signals we’ve so far missed, but we will also be able to pinpoint which individual DNA change is responsible’ and asserted that ‘These genome sequencing studies will really help us push forward towards a more complete biological understanding of diabetes.’