A biomarker traced in the blood could predict the type 2 diabetes up to nineteen years before the onset of the disease. to declare it is a research carried out byLund University in Sweden. (1)
The study was published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
Biomarker predicts type 2 diabetes – here’s what the research says
Type 2 diabetes is a growing global epidemic, with 6% of the world’s population suffering from it. However, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes can be greatly reduced by controlling weight, eating well and exercising before the disease actually occurs. Early detection of type 2 diabetes risk before symptoms could help minimize diabetes-related health complications.
The predicted prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus has increased from 15.2% in 2020 to 23.8% in 2050. Prevalence increased from 16.8 and 13.8% in 2020 among women and men to 26.3 and 21.4% in 2050, respectively.. In 2020, 190,489 Omani people were living with type 2 diabetes mellitus compared to 570,227 in 2050. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyzes confirmed these predictions.
The incidence rate per 1,000 person-years increased from 8.3 in 2020 to 12.1 in 2050. The share of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Oman’s national health expenditure increased by 36% between 2020 and 2050 (from 21.2 to 28.8%). Obesity explained 56.7% of type 2 diabetes mellitus cases in 2020 and 71.4% in 2050, physical inactivity explained 4.3% in 2020 and 2.7% in 2050 , while smoking accounted for <1% of type 2 diabetes mellitus cases in the 2020-2050 period.
It is important to specify what the burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus is strongly influenced by obesity. Interventions targeting this single risk factor should be a national priority to reduce and control the burden of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
“We found that higher levels of the biomarker called follistatin protein in the blood predict type 2 diabetes up to nineteen years before the onset of the disease, regardless of other new risk factors, such as age, mass index. body (BMI), fasting blood sugar levels, diet or physical activity “, said Dr. Yang De Marinis, associate professor at Lund University and lead author of the study.
This finding is based on studies that followed 5,318 people over the course of 4-19 years in two different locations in Sweden and Finland.
Follistatin is a protein secreted mainly by the liver and involved in the regulation of metabolism. The study investigated what happens to the body when this biomarker in the bloodstream gets too high. Using the Clinical data from the German Tübingen diabetes family study and cell biology investigation, the researchers found that follistatin promotes the breakdown of fat from adipose tissue, resulting in increased lipid accumulation in the liver. This in turn increases the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and type 2 diabetes.
To find out what regulates blood follistatin levels, the researchers performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 5,124 people from Sweden, the UK and Italy and revealed that follistatin levels are genetically regulated by the glucokinase regulatory protein (GCKR), which impacts several metabolic traits.
“This study shows that follistatin has the potential to become an important biomarker for predicting future type 2 diabetes and ci also takes one step closer to understanding the underlying mechanisms of the disease“, says Yang De Marinis.
The next step is to experience the results clinically. An AI-based diagnostic tool that uses follistatin as a biomarker for type 2 diabetes is being developed through biotech startup Lundoch Diagnostics, of which Yang De Marinis is CEO.
This will commercialize the tool with patent applications in global markets. The tool aims to provide a simple blood test, in which the results of a protein biomarker panel can be imputed into an AI-based algorithm and ultimately provide patients with a risk score to assess their risk of future type 2 diabetes.
“This discovery offers the opportunity to institute measures to prevent the emergence of type 2 diabetes. Our research will continue towards this goalo ”, concludes Yang De Marinis.
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