Digbi Health research curation team has identified a novel variant in the hepatic nuclear factor 1 (HNF1) gene that is strongly associated with T2D risk in people of hispanic and Latin American heritage. People with the gene variation have 600 % higher risk of diabetes. Carriers of this variant are clinically indistinguishable from non-carriers with T2D, highlighting the need to use genetic methods to identify them.
This variant causes an amino acid change from glutamate to lysine in the gene, which when mutated causes maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY). Functional exploration of transcriptional activity suggests that this variant confers an intermediate molecular phenotype between MODY and common T2D. People with MODY who carry complete loss-of-function mutations in HNF1A have improved sensitivity to sulfonylureas, compared to insulin and metformin treatment. This suggests that individuals of Hispanic or Latin American heritage who carry this variant might benefit from sulfonylurea therapy over metformin once identified by genotyping, potentially avoiding the consequences of several cycles of trial-and-error medication testing.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Know you body first - gene and gut biome. "An ounce of personalization is worth pounds of guessing".
Personalize. You have unique and higher risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes if you have African American, Chinese, South Asian, Indian, Hispanic heritage.
Personalizing your food and lifestyle to fit your individual genetic, gut biome, blood markers will ensure the best and optimum health benefits you seek.
WHAT SHOULD EMPLOYERS DO?
Illness risk vary significantly by gender and ethnicity. Employers need to explore and incorporate Personalized Wellness to support health of their diverse and global workforce. Companies like Digbi have ethnic and gender specific personalized wellness programs designed for success and global network of CLIA certified lab partners. We provide advanced tools to determine bio-individuality of your employees and their family, recommend food, exercise and health risk guidelines based on their genes, gut biome, ethnic risk factors and lifestyle.
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