|
PARIS: Researchers have uncovered new genetic clues
for diabetes and cancer of the colon and rectum, according to papers
published Sunday in the journal Nature Genetics.
A consortium of researchers,
sifting through data from six major studies, found six previously
unknown genetic variants that boost the risk of Type 2 diabetes, the
most common of the two forms of the disease and one that is
spreading fast in developed economies.
Separately, investigators found
that people with specific variants of genes located on Chromosomes
8, 10 and 11 were at increased risk of colo-rectal cancers.
The flawed genes were found in a
wide trawl of the genome of tens of thousands of people.
They add to other genes
associated with risk for these complex diseases, although many more
remain to be discovered, scientists said.
Diabetes affects 246 million
people worldwide and is expected to affect some 380 million by 2025,
according to the International Diabetes Federation website.
Colo-rectal cancer causes 655,000
deaths a year, according to figures on the World Health Organization
(WHO) website.
Finding genes that cause or
contribute to a disease is the first step toward diagnostic tests to
identify people at risk. It also potentially opens the way to drugs
that block or ease the activity of the culprit genes.
--AFP
|
