November 6, 2014

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Researchers have long suspected that Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease have factors in common and a new genetics study in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics has identified eight molecular pathways common to both diseases.

In the study, scientists used a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) and health records of nearly 8,200 black women, 3,500 Hispanic women and 3,700 white women. In evaluating women with both Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease compared to healthy subjects, the team discovered inconsistencies in eight pathways regulating how cells stick within tissues, talk to each other, how neurons interact with target locations, the physical support system within tissues, and numerous forms of heart muscle complications.

Study author Simin Liu, professor of epidemiology and medicine in the Brown University, said the team focused on how specific genes and the proteins they produce interact to affect physiology and health.

Looking at genes one by one is standard, Liu said in a recent statement. But ultimately, the interactions of biology are fundamentally organized in a pathway and network manner.

Image Above: A genetic network shows 10 proposed key driver genes that may have especially great influence in both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Credit: Liu lab/Brown University

The study found molecular evidence of the eight pathways across all ethnicities and found a few pathways that were ethnicity-specific. The researchers used five different methodologies to analyze the pathways and identified one only if it showed up in at least two analyses. The researchers also exposed the pathways to a network investigation to spot genes that could be key drivers of the two conditions. They were able to find and report ten in the paper.

These [key driver] genes represent central network genes which, when perturbed, can potentially affect a large number of genes involved in the (cardiovascular disease) and (Type 2 diabetes) pathways and thus exert stronger impact on diseases, the team wrote.

Originally posted here:
Genetic Connection Between Diabetes And Heart Disease

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