Diabetes and heart disease are closely related? The culprit is actually a gene!

Core Tip: Type 2 diabetes affects more than 3.8 million people worldwide and is now becoming a global pandemic. However, we are not very clear about the cause of type 2 diabetes. The main risk factor for heart disease.

Diabetes and heart disease are closely related? The culprit is actually a gene!

 Type 2 diabetes affects more than 3.8 million people worldwide and is now becoming a global pandemic. However, we are not very clear about the cause of type 2 diabetes, and it is also the main cause of coronary heart disease. Risk factors, but the researchers have not clarified the biological relationship between them. Now researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have conducted a large-scale analysis of a large number of genetic data for the first time to analyze the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. The association between type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease was also elucidated, and the study was published in the international journal Nature Genetics.



By genome-sequencing analysis of more than 250,000 people, the researchers identified 16 new genetic risk factors for diabetes and a new risk factor for coronary heart disease for the first time, thus providing an understanding of the relationship between the two diseases. A certain research basis; subsequent researchers pointed out that most of the genomic loci associated with high-risk diabetes may be directly related to high-risk coronary heart disease, and among the 8 loci, the researchers identified a specific genetic mutation. It may affect the risk of type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. These two diseases share the same genetic risk factors and can affect a variety of biological pathways, including immunity, cell proliferation and heart development.

Researcher Danish Saleheen said that identifying mutations associated with the risk of both diseases may help us develop new drugs or therapies that reduce the risk of both diseases, from a drug development perspective, focusing on two diseases. A strongly related biological pathway may be very important. The researchers said that mutations in the cholesterol transport protein ApoE gene may be directly related to high-risk diabetes but low-risk coronary heart disease. In general, the genetic association between diseases seems to play a role in one direction, therefore, type 2 diabetes The risk genes may be more associated with high-risk coronary heart disease.

Researcher Saleheen said that using evidence from human genetics, it seems possible to design new drugs that are beneficial for both diseases or only for type 2 diabetes, but identify priority pathways that reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes but increase the risk of coronary heart disease. It seems to be more important; at the same time, the researchers also found that diabetes-related genetic mutations may have different effects on the risk of coronary heart disease, depending on the molecular mechanisms involved, while increasing the risk of individual obesity or hypertension, compared to changes Mutations in insulin or glucose levels appear to be more likely to increase the risk of coronary heart disease in individuals.


The researchers also found that the genomic region involved in the risk-point of diabetes-coronary heart disease often contains current drug targets, one of which is eicosapentaenoic acid, which is an omega-3 fatty acid that lowers the body. Cholesterol levels. This double-effect risk locus includes a region covering the FABP4 gene, and FABP4 may serve as a novel target for the development of drugs for diabetes and coronary heart disease. In a mouse model study, the researchers found that inhibition of the expression of this gene may result. An anti-atherosclerotic effect that helps to resist the deposition of fat on the inner wall of an artery and has a certain anti-diabetic effect.

In the next step, the researchers plan to investigate the mechanism of action of this dual-risk gene. Researchers hope to use more advanced genomic engineering techniques to help elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in diabetes and heart disease; they also expect to be able to do more A number of studies have developed new therapies for both diseases.