They locate areas of the genome that affect insulin

Catalan researchers Locate 3,300 genome areas involved in insulin production
also verified the direct influence of certain variations of the DNA located there in the possible appearance of diabetes

A study with international participation led by scientists from the Biomedical Research Institute August Pi I Sunyer, of the Clinic Hospital of Barcelona, ​​has identified 3,300 areas of the human genome that participate in the regulation of insulin producing cells and verified the direct influence of certain variationsof DNA (polymorphisms) located there in the development of this process.

This discovery, published in the 'On Line' edition of 'Nature Genetics', allows you to deepen the knowledge of diabetes and create, in the future, new treatments.

The authors of this study used the latest genetic sequencing techniques-known of mass sequencing or ultra-decrease-to design a 'map' of the active DNA regions in the pancreatic islets, that is, the parts of the pancreas responsible for segregating insulin insulin, whose study is essential to understand diabetes.

Thus they managed to identify 80,000 areas of chromatin activity (the DNA and protein set found in the cell core) and demonstrate that 3,300 of these areas participated, in a specific way, in the regulation of genetic expression within theIslets

They also discovered that certain genetic variants such as the 'RS7903146'- closely related to type 2 diabetes- are located in one of these areas where it is decided if a gene of the islet will manifest to a greater or lesser extent.They showed that this variant could condition the risk of developing diabetes that an individual has, because it alters the activity of the genome in that region.

As explained to Europa Press the researcher at the Biomedical Research Institute August Pi I Sunyer Jorge Ferrer, leader of this study, "one of the most important advances has been to locate certain polymorphisms associated with type 2 diabetes in functionally significant genomic regions and verify that, specifically, diabetes associated have a direct impact on insulin producing cells. "

"This research, therefore, will allow to design a strategy to better understand the mechanism by which certain polymorphisms could be increasing the risk of developing diabetes and thus being able to create new drugs for this disease," said Ferrer, who recalled that previous worksThey described polymorphisms associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes, but that this is the first to explain "how to discern that polymorphisms are really important and how they produce the described effect."

For Jason Lieb, another of the authors of this work, "the next step after this finding is to see how researchers who work in the diabetes field use this data to advance their studies on the genes in which they are interested".

"I trust that this research has a great impact on that path and helps other scientists to decipher DNA sequences whose functions are important and that this strategy is applied to other diseases influenced by genetics. In addition, we also want to discover what specific proteins areRegulating the areas that we have identified, "he concluded.

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