Predicting Type 2 Diabetes
Reported March 24, 2011
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — A new study shows measuring levels of small molecules in the blood may be a way to identify people at risk for developing type 2 diabetes up to a decade before symptoms appear.
Researchers led by a team from Massachusetts General Hospital discovered that levels of five amino acids could not only indicate an increased risk of diabetes in the general population but could also differentiate among those with traditional risk factors (like obesity) and those most likely to actually develop the disease. The five amino acids that were studied included: isoleucine, leucine, valine, tyrosine and phenylalanine.
New technologies that measure levels of metabolites, which are small molecules that are produced by metabolic activities and released into the bloodstream, are giving scientists insight into a person’s metabolic status. The researchers found that measuring combinations of several metabolites, as opposed to a single amino acid, improved risk prediction. In people closely matched for traditionally type 2 diabetes risk factors, those with the highest levels of the three most predictive amino acids had a four- to five-times greater risk of developing diabetes.
“These findings could provide insight into metabolic pathways that are altered very early in the process leading to diabetes,” lead author Thomas Wang, M.D., of the MGH Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC) and Division of Cardiology, was quoted as saying.
“They also raise the possibility that, in selected individuals, these measurements could identify those at highest risk of developing diabetes so that early preventive measures could be instituted.”
SOURCE: Nature Medicine, March 20, 2011