Indian scientists create gene map for diabetes

Indian geneticists have created a gene map for diabetes, identifying seven genes that could be later be exploited to come out with a more effective cure for the lifestyle disease, affecting millions of Indians, both rich and poor.

While there are 650 genes that are directly or indirectly associated with the five common diseases associated with diabetes, seven genes are associated with all the five complications. These five could serve as targets for future research on the search for better diabetes control medication.

The diseases, whose genetic links were explored in the study are atherosclerosis, diabetic nephropathy, diabetic neuropathy, diabetic retinopathy and cardiovascular diseases.

The gene atlas has been created by scientists at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi — one of the constituent laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) — after scrutinising every published scientific details on the genetic links of diabetes.

“Obesity is clearly a dominant risk factor interacting with the genes of diabetes (type 2) complications followed by inflammation, diet and stress to variable extents,” team leader Srinivasan Ramachandran from the IGIB told DH.

As of 2014, more than 371 million people worldwide suffer from type-2 diabetes with China topping the list with 92.3 million patients, followed by India (80 million) and the USA (29 million).

With the non-communicable disease continuing to spread far and wide, pharmaceutical firms invest heavily into finding out new medicines against diabetes as there is no stop in the swelling number of diabetes patients.

From a rich man’s disease, diabetes has now become one of the commonest disorders for the poor.

An Indian Council of Medical Research study recently showed the lifestyle disease with long-term health consequences is shifting its direction, as it is becoming increasingly common among people from the lower socio-economic background living in urban areas of the more affluent states.

“One of the genes named VEGFA evidently appears striking and is associated with several complications of type 2 diabetes. It is apparent that obesity and inflammation play major role in the development of the disease ...,” he said.