A new genetic test that measures risk factors for type 1 diabetes means that physicians can now better diagnose whether a patient has type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The correct diagnosis is crucial, and making a mistake can be fatal. People with type 2 diabetes are typically obese, and can usually manage their condition through weight loss and an improved diet. Less than 10 percent of diabetes patients are type 1. Type 1 diabetics are unable to absorb sugar because their body’s immune system has destroyed the cells that make insulin. Most type 1 patients are diagnosed at an early age, but some adults develop the condition.
Trying to manage type 1 diabetes through diet and exercise may result in life-threatening complications. Conversely, putting a type 2 diabetic on insulin is unnecessary and expensive.
University of Exeter Medical School’s Dr. Richard Oram, says that since a clinical diagnosis of which type of diabetes a patient has is currently based on their weight and age, the new genetic test, which is relatively inexpensive, should be very helpful. The test measures 30 genetic variants in a patients DNA and comes all the risks associated with those variants into a single score. If the score is high, the patient likely has type 1 diabetes. If low they may have type 2. The individual diagnosis can be completed with a commonly-used test that measures antibodies.
Oram says the test will help patients to better understand their condition. “This is a genetic test which essentially means that it measures genetic risk factors for type 1 diabetes and it measures very simply and cheaply in a way that’s easy to do, and it means that when a patient presents with diabetes we could measure that genetic risk and if the genetic risk is higher for type 1 diabetes it means they’re very likely to have autoimmune type-1 diabetes, and if the genetic risk is low for type 1 diabetes then they’re much more likely to have type 2 diabetes, the kind of diabetes associated with obesity,” he told Reuters.
The research was supported in part by the Wellcome Trust, whose regional manager Claire Gordon said that they are looking at making the test a very cheap process that can be done universally, perhaps even through a phone app. In the short term, the University of Exeter Medical School can test genetic samples sent by hospitals across the UK. The team is also working on a test that any clinical lab could run quickly and cheaply.