Diabetes Treatment - New Discovery May Help Identity Those At Risk Of Complications

The discovery of the fact that the blood levels of some ribonucleic acids (microRNAs) differ between people with type 2 diabetes (as well as those who subsequently develop the disease) and healthy individuals, was published in a recent edition of Circulation Research, a Journal of the American Heart Association. MicroRNAs, which are shorter versions of the messenger RNA, do not translate genetic information like messenger RNAs do, but instead help in the regulation of protein expression by binding to the longer messenger RNAs. MicroRNAs have been linked to many diseases previously, including diabetes.

Manuel Mayr, M.D., Ph.D., a Senior fellow of the British Heart Foundation in the Cardiovascular Division at King’s College London in the United Kingdom, and one of the researchers responsible for this discovery, commented on the discovery: “We think that some of these microRNA changes may precede the onset of diabetes. Future studies will need to confirm whether these new markers can help to actually target therapies and assess patients.”

“This is the first study to investigate specific changes in blood microRNA levels as an early indicator of diabetes and its associated cardiovascular risk,” said Mayr, who added, “It’s very important for the clinician to define those diabetic patients who are at the highest risk of developing cardiovascular complications,” said Mayr. “We hope that this new class of blood markers may give additional insight that we’re currently not getting from the other clinical tests.”