14 DAY TRIAL // Detecting the early onset of conditions such as heart diseases, diabetes and atherosclerosis is about to become a lot easier, thanks to investigation methods pioneered by an international group of scientists.
The researchers were able to develop a technique of determining which persons are at risk of developing these disorders based on in-depth genetic studies of numerous varieties of lipids.
Only lipids in blood plasma are targeted in this approach, say experts from the Netherlands and the United States. They say that these studies provide a better, earlier and more reliable detection rate.
Lipids are the fatty molecules in blood plasma, and they exist in numerous flavors. Each of these types features its unique genetic make-up, which makes each of them susceptible to change in a different manner, AlphaGalileo reports.
The announcement was made on Monday, May 30, at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics. Experts will also present two research papers detailing the discovery, and revealing more about the study methodology.
Currently, factors such as blood glucose and insulin levels are widely used to predict risks of developing conditions such as diabetes. In the future, lipidomic profiling will become a lot more reliable than these two methods combined, researcher Dr. Joanne Curran explains.
The expert, who is based at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute (TBRI), in San Antonio, the US, is the leader of a research group featuring Australian scientists. The collaboration studies 356 different lipid varieties in 1,100 individuals for this study.
In the test group, the progression to diabetes could be tracked by studying 128 lipid varieties, the team leader explains. “The single best predictor we found was a novel component called dihydroceramide (dhCer),” Dr. Curran says.
“It is also heritable, and appears to be an independent risk factor unconnected to blood sugar and insulin levels,” the investigator told colleagues at the meeting.
“Through whole genome sequencing, we are now attempting to identify this causal gene in the hope that it will be informative in the understanding of the pathogenesis of diabetes, and also suggest new avenues for treatment,” she explains.
The second study was presented by Dr. Sara Willems, who is based at the Erasmus Medical Center, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She and her team studies the effects that several lipid variants have on conditions such as atherosclerosis and related heart disease.
“A recent genome-wide meta-analysis of more than 100,000 individuals identified a large number of genetic variants associated with levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol, HDL (good) cholesterol and triglycerides,” the expert says.
“These molecules are, at increased levels of LDL and triglycerides and decreased levels of HDL, important risk factors for cardiovascular disease,” she concludes.