Simple blood test could identify who is at risk of developing diabetes

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Tuesday 03 Nov 2015 - 13:44 Makkah mean time-21-1-1437 Honolulu, US (IINA) - A simple blood test could identify who is at risk of developing diabetes, a new collaboration study has found. The test could give individuals years of advanced warning, so they can change their lifestyles and potentially avoid diagnosis, researchers said. It could also identify people who are overweight but are not in any danger of developing the disease, Mail Online reported. Scientists discovered that levels of unsaturated fatty acids in the blood are markers of pre-diabetes, high blood sugar levels that can predict the onset of type 2 diabetes. These fatty acid levels can change up to 10 years before full-blown diabetes develops, they found. The researchers are now developing a blood test to identify those at risk which could be carried out during routine physical check ups in future. Lead researcher Dr Wei Jia of the University of Hawai'i Cancer Center (UHCC) said: “Currently there are no clinical tests that tell you the likelihood of developing diabetes, only exams that tell you, for example, if someone that is pre-diabetic has relatively high blood sugar or insulin levels”. “To know if you are likely to get diabetes in a few years is an important discovery. People can hopefully get tested for the disease during physical exams in the future,” he added. Conventionally, it is assumed that people who are obese are at risk of being pre-diabetic, he continued. 'However, sometimes people who are obese can still be healthy,' he said. 'If people know they are specifically pre-diabetic, they can have a more targeted way of treating it.' Obesity is associated with type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, heart problems and cancer. However, around 25 to 40 per cent of obese individuals can be fat but metabolically healthy, showing no apparent signs of health complications, researchers said. Dr Wei and his team, who worked in collaboration with scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University affiliated Shanghai 6th People's Hospital, studied 452 people split into four groups. They looked at metabolically healthy and unhealthy obese subjects, observing the occurrence of pre-diabetes over ten years. They discovered levels of unsaturated fatty acids in the blood are markers of pre-diabetes. The levels of these fatty acids can change up to 10 years before the individuals are diagnosed with the disease. Taking a blood sample could predict the risk of developing pre-diabetes and diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which is a group of conditions including elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance and high blood sugar level. This could allow physicians to warn people years before the onset of diabetes, allowing them to change their lifestyle patterns and potentially avoid ever developing the disease. The researchers are developing the technology to test blood, and aim to make it available to health professionals. The study was published in the journal EBioMedicine. SM/IINA