Hyderabad scientists help decipher genetic mystery behind type 2 diabetes – Times of India

HYDERABAD: A team of international scientists, including the city-based Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), has shed new light on how genes contribute to type 2. diabetes in South Asian populations. It is one of the largest research studies to understand the genetic mystery behind diabetes in European, East Asian, African and Hispanic people as well as South Asians. The worldwide study involving millions of diabetics was published in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics. It turns out that population-specific differences in genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. The result paves the way for the development of lineage-specific genetic risk scores for risk prediction in different populations. According to CCMB scientists, this has huge implications for Indians, where every sixth person is potentially diabetic.

He said the vast study with diverse populations is a major step towards understanding the risk of type 2 diabetes in South Asians.

The study, called DIAMANTE (Diabetes Meta-Analysis of Trans-Ethnic Association Studies), was led by Professor Andrew Morris at the University of Manchester.

According to the study, the global prevalence of type 2 diabetes has increased four-fold in the past 30 years. South Asia, particularly India and China, are the major centers of this boom. It is believed that Indians are particularly prone to type 2 diabetes because they are centrally obese which means fat around the abdomen. This is an indicator of the fat around their visceral organs and are more insulin resistant from birth.

This is in contrast to Europeans, who are generally obese. Despite this fact, the largest studies to understand the genetic basis of type 2 diabetes have been conducted mostly on populations of European ancestry.

Dr Giriraj R Chandak, Chief Scientist of CCMB and one of the principal investigators from India, said that the present study is a landmark event where scientists from different parts of the world have worked together to understand the similarities and differences in genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes. The mind is put together. in different populations.

The Dr Chandak-led group had previously provided evidence of greater genetic diversity in Indians than in Europeans, which compromises our ability to predict type 2 diabetes risk in Indian populations using European data.

“This recent study compared the genomic DNA of 1.8 million people with type 2 diabetes to 11.6 million normal subjects from five ancestry – Europeans, East Asians, South Asians, Africans and Hispanics, and found a large number of genetic differences (single nucleotides). polymorphisms or SNPs) between patients and normal subjects,” said Dr. Chandak.

CCMB Director Dr Vinay Nandikuri said the latest study sets the stage for screening South Asian populations for genetic susceptibility to type 2 diabetes and expands the journey on the path of precision medicine.