Scientific breakthrough can help obesity problems

With obesity levels increasing in Scotland leading to other diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, finding a genetic link as to the cause of these common diseases is the breakthrough that scientists have been searching for.

The sequencing of the human genome kicked off a revolution in genetics but several years on and it still remains difficult to identify specific genes that cause common diseases such as heart disease, obesity and diabetes. The way the genes function within the disease has also proved to be elusive.

The main obstacle is the fact that common illnesses probably arise from complex interactions among many groups of genes and environmental factors. It is therefore welcome news that scientists at Merck & Co Inc have developed a new research method that may help identify and decipher these complex interactions.

The researchers have developed a new method of analysing DNA and used it to discover that obesity is not only complex – something already known – but complex in ways that had not been previously understood.

“Obesity is not a disease that is the result of a single change to a single gene. It changes entire networks,” said Eric Schadt, executive director of Genetics at Merck Research Laboratories. Overeating disrupts the networks, causing not only obesity, but diabetes and heart disease in ways that may now be possible to predict.

This means new treatments can be found to fight against these diseases, although the best treatment is a balanced, healthy diet. Said Eric Schadt, executive director of Genetics at Merck Research Laboratories: “If you are not going to alter your lifestyle, we can identify what network is going to be most significantly altered. Then we can bring that network more into a state to where it looks like when you are on a normal diet.”

Everyone’s network is different – some are predisposed to diabetes when obesity sets in, others to heart disease, so tests will now be possible that can detect a network pattern.

This is breakthrough science, but the real answer has to be that eating healthily will result in staying healthy.

(Back to news)