Genetics of Type 2 Diabetes
Genetics of Type 2 Diabetes Revealed in Unprecedented Detail
This is an interesting article about the genetics of Type 2 Diabetes.As we all know, type diabetes is a complicated illness and is affected my many factors. Over weight people are much more prone to have type 2 diabetes. Does the gene influence affect weight gain and then weight gain affect diabetes? To be able to treat and cure Type 2 Diabetes researchers are trying to unravel the complexities of the genetic part of the equation. Using DNA sequencing in more than 120,000 people they looked details regarding the influence of genes of Type 2 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is permeate and life long, where type 2 diabetes is not something you are born with and can be influenced by outside factors.
Bethesda, Md., Mon., July 11, 2016 – A comprehensive investigation of the underlying genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes has unveiled the most detailed look at the genetic differences that increase a person’s risk for disease development. The findings, published July 11 in the journal Nature, reveal the complexity of the disease in more detail than previously appreciated and also identify several promising targets for new treatments.
Type 2 diabetes is a global health concern, with approximately ten percent of the world’s population diagnosed with the disease or likely to develop it in their lifetime. Previous studies into the genetics of diabetes risk have identified 80 areas in the human genome associated with type 2 diabetes; however, it remains unknown exactly how these genetic changes, known as variants, are distributed among populations and how they lead to increased risk. Functional explanations for these risk variants have been particularly elusive because most of them fall outside the coding region of genes, and are presumably involved in gene regulation.
Using DNA sequencing in more than 120,000 people with ancestral origins in Europe, South and East Asia, the Americas and Africa, the authors, including Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health and head of the Molecular Genetics Section at the National Human Genome Research Institute, evaluated the genome at a greater level of detail than had been previously attempted for type 2 diabetes. Some individuals had their entire genome sequenced while for others the researchers focused on the part of the genome that codes directly for proteins, known as the exome. The researchers then compared the genetic changes between affected and healthy participants.
The findings suggest that most of the genetic risk of type 2 diabetes can be attributed to common, shared genetic variants – each contributing a small amount to an individual’s risk of the disease – rather than many rare variants unique to individuals. This resolves a question about the genetics of type 2 diabetes that has puzzled researchers for decades.
