New Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes Gene Identified

Catharine Paddock PhD, Medical News Today
10 January, 2013
Based on research published online Jan. 6 2013 in Nature Medicine
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/254817.php


Summary:
A team of researchers have found a gene that has an important role when involving insulin production as well as obesity, increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Obesity is what occurs when the process that regulates food absorption and energy production "mess up", and the result is the excess storage of fat. Insulin resistance is a risk factor for type 2 because it is the less effective use of insulin (which regulates the amount of sugar in the body) compared to normal people.
From the study, the team found out from testing mice that if the gene TRIP-Br2 was "knocked out", then the mice would stop becoming obese and developing insulin resistance. The gene regulates the storage of fat and energy use. The team later on looked at the fat storage cells for these mice, they found that there was a high level of the conversion of fat into lipids to give the body energy. Based on the studies of other people, the researchers concluded that the gene could be a target for gene therapy for treating obesity and other similar conditions in humans.
This discovery of an "obesity gene" has followed those happening before, in 2010 and 2011. In 2010, researchers found there to be a variant of the FTO gene that causes Americans to gain weight and be a risk of obesity as well as the loss of brain tissue. This variant occurs in over one third of Americans. Then in 2011, researchers suggested that a gene called KLF 14 was linked to obesity, diabetes, and cholesterol. The researchers had found a "master regulator gene" that controlled be behavior of other genes existing inside of fat cells.

Connection:
This article relates to what we were learning in molecular genetics. In that unit, we learned about gene therapy, and we also learned how gene therapy can be very helpful for various diseases. This article is saying that this new gene was found out to have been affecting obesity and insulin production, so gene therapy in the future could target this gene as a solution to diabetes and similar problems. We also learned about adding and deleting genes/ sections. This relates to the article because the TRIP-Br2 gene in the mice were "knocked out" so that the study would be effective. There was also a small paragraph about diabetes (insulin production in bacteria), so this could prove to be an alternative to that.