Diabetes Gene Found In Children Offers Hope For A Diabetes Cure

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor of Telegraph Media Group, UK

Scientists have identified a gene that causes diabetes in children, which will increase the chances of preventing the condition.

Doctors hope they will soon be able to test infants for the gene, codenamed KIAA0350, and treat them for Type 1 diabetes, known as "insulin dependent diabetes", before it takes hold.

By the time of diagnosis, most of the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas have been destroyed, which makes genetic prediction vital.

Type 1 diabetes is a debilitating disease that mainly affects children. The medical care is a burden, especially for the young. It is a life sentence of daily insulin injections and treatment.

Diabetes occurs because the body cannot use glucose properly, either because of a lack of the hormone insulin or because the insulin produced by the body does not work properly.

Complications such as blindness, kidney problems and nerve damage can arise if the condition is untreated.

Reports of the discovery come as NHS spending on drugs for diabetes has soared to £10 million a week as the waistlines of the nation have steadily expanded.

The rising number of Type 2 diabetes patients, commonly associated with being overweight, has sent the costs soaring.

There are currently more than two million people diagnosed with diabetes in Britain.

The figures released by the Prescription Pricing Authority highlight the diabetes epidemic. Prescriptions by GPs for drugs and equipment to control the illness soared from 12.92 million in 1998 to 32.29 million last year.

At the same time, the cost to the NHS rose from £167 million a year in 1998 to last year's £562.5 million.

Today, in the journal Nature, a report by Prof Constantin Polychronakos, the director of paediatric endocrinology at McGill University, Montreal - in collaboration with Dr Hakon Hakonarson, of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - provides hope of earlier diagnosis and even a cure one day.

Using innovative DNA microchips, which can test 550,000 genes in a single analysis, they have detected a new gene involved in Type 1 diabetes.

Until recently, only four of the genes responsible for this disease had been identified-this is the fifth gene.

The causes of Type 1 diabetes are still not fully understood. It is estimated that approximately half are genetic and the other half environmental, which is why the new work is important.

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