Here’s some good news for young diabetes patients. A breakthrough study in the diagnosis and treatment of early onset of diabetes by Christian Medical College may soon allow some youngsters, who were misdiagnosed to be suffering from type 1 or 2 diabetes, to be taken off insulin. This may come as relief for several young patients suffering from Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY), who are unnecessarily taking insulin shots.
Researchers attached to the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism claimed that understanding the genetic data of patients would help identify the right type of diabetes and treatment.
Dr Nihal Thomas, HoD, said, while it is well known that multiple genes caused type 1 and 2 diabetes, a defect in single gene reportedly affected around 2 per cent of diabetic patients with a subset type called MODY. This type of diabetes is found to be prevalent among youngsters below the age of 30, with the family history of diabetes. The interesting finding is that this type could be treated with diet and exercise or with less medication and without insulin, he pointed out.
At present these patients are misdiagnosed to be suffering from type 1 or 2 and could be receiving inappropriate treatment. In fact some may be receiving insulin unnecessarily.
In the past ten years, various institutions across the country were able to study only two genes that were found to cause MODY. But CMC, using the next generation sequencing technology, studied a panel of 10 such genes simultaneously.
The results of the eight-month study were recently presented at the American Society of Human Genetics conference in Boston, USA, where it was accepted as original work.