New Gene Regions Tied To Diabetes

Seven new genetic regions tied to Type 2 diabetes have been identified in the latest largest study of the genetic base of the disease.
DNA data was compiled from 48,000 patients and 139,000 healthy controls from four different ethnic groups. The research was done by scientists from 20 countries on four continents and co-led by researchers from Oxford University's Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics.
Most "genome-wide association studies" have been done with people of European descent. This new research includes those of Hispanic and Asian background as well.
Researchers believe that as more genetic data becomes available, especially from those of South Asian and African origin, they will be able to map the genes involved with Type 2 diabetes.
"One of the striking features of these data is how much of the genetic variation that influences diabetes is shared between major ethnic groups," said Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Professor Mark McCarthy from the University of Oxford. "This has allowed us to combine data from more than 50 studies from across the globe to discover new genetic regions affecting risk of diabetes."
He adds, "The overlap in signals between populations of European, Asian, and Hispanic origin argue that the risk regions we have found to date do not explain the clear differences in the patterns of diabetes between those groups."
The new regions identified by the international research team were two near the genes ARL15 and RREB1 that tend to have links to elevated insulin and glucose levels in the blood. This particular finding gives insights into the ways biomechanical processes contribute to Type 2 diabetes.
This genome-wide association study looked at more than 3 million DNA variants to find those that have the greatest impact on the development of Type 2 diabetes. For the first time, researchers were able to find regions where the effects on diabetes susceptibility are subtle.
"Although the genetic effects may be small, each signal tells us something new about the biology of the disease," said first author Dr. Anubha Mahajan of Oxford University. "These findings may lead us to new ways of thinking about the disease, with the aim ultimately of developing novel therapies to treat and prevent diabetes. There's every reason to expect that drugs acting on these biological processes would have a far larger impact on an individual's diabetes than the genetic effects we have discovered."
Principle Investigator Dr. Andrew Morris, of the Wellcome Trust Centre added, "The findings of our study should also be relevant to other common human diseases. By combining genetic data from different ethnic groups, we would expect also to be able to identify new DNA variants influencing risk of heart disease and some forms of cancer, for example, which are shared across ethnic groups. It has the potential to have a major impact on global public health."
Reference: Medical Xpress
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