EU research raises diabetes hopes

Potential new treatments for type 2 diabetes may have received something of a boost today after EU-funded researchers identified a human genetic variant that raises the risk of developing the condition.

The study, which has been published in the journal Nature Genetics, will hopefully lead to the development of new treatments for condition, which arises when the body cannot produce enough insulin or does not respond to insulin correctly.

Until now, our understanding of the condition had been limited to the fact that scientists had identified 18 genetic variants said to raise a person's risk of developing this form of diabetes. According to previous studies, the majority of these variants impair the ability of the pancreas to produce sufficient insulin, but this new study has identified the first genetic variant that appears to affect the ability of muscle cells to use insulin.

Researchers have revealed how the variant was discovered by scanning the genomes of thousands of people, including those both suffering from diabetes and those not. Comparisons between the two groups sort to reveal how a single mutation can affect the activity of a gene called Insulin Receptor Substrate 1 (IRS1) and how this gene can produce a protein which tells cells when to take up glucose from the blood.

According to the findings of the report, with people who had newly discovered the genetic variant, the activity of the IRS1 gene was reduced by 40 percent, effectively rendering the body's cells less sensitive to insulin and damaging their ability to make energy from glucose.

The results mark the first genetic evidence that a defect in the way insulin works in muscles can contribute to diabetes. It is hoped that, from here, developing a treatment for diabetes that improves the way insulin works in the muscle could really help those suffering with type 2 diabetes.

In the US, for instance, around 17.9 million people have already been diagnosed with diabetes; while two million suffer from the condition in the UK. Such figures just highlights how significant advances in the this area are.

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