Familial young-onset diabetes, pre-diabetes and cardiovascular disease are associated with genetic variants of DACH1 in Chinese.

In Asia, young-onset type 2 diabetes (YOD) is characterized by obesity and increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). In a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 99 Chinese obese subjects with familial YOD diagnosed before 40-year-old and 101 controls, the T allele of rs1408888 in intron 1 of DACH1(Dachshund homolog 1) was associated with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.49(95% confidence intervals:1.57-3.96, P = 8.4 × 10(-5)). Amongst these subjects, we found reduced expression of DACH1 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 63 cases compared to 65 controls (P = 0.02). In a random cohort of 1468 cases and 1485 controls, amongst top 19 SNPs from GWAS, rs1408888 was associated with type 2 diabetes with a global P value of 0.0176 and confirmation in a multiethnic Asian case-control cohort (7370/7802) with an OR of 1.07(1.02-1.12, P(meta)  = 0.012). In 599 Chinese non-diabetic subjects, rs1408888 was linearly associated with systolic blood pressure and insulin resistance. In a case-control cohort (n = 953/953), rs1408888 was associated with an OR of 1.54(1.07-2.22, P = 0.019) for CVD in type 2 diabetes. In an autopsy series of 173 non-diabetic cases, TT genotype of rs1408888 was associated with an OR of 3.31(1.19-9.19, P = 0.0214) and 3.27(1.25-11.07, P = 0.0184) for coronary heart disease (CHD) and coronary arteriosclerosis. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that rs1408888 lies within regulatory elements of DACH1 implicated in islet development and insulin secretion. The T allele of rs1408888 of DACH1 was associated with YOD, prediabetes and CVD in Chinese.

Genetic associations of type 2 diabetes with islet amyloid polypeptide processing and degrading pathways in asian populations.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex disease characterized by beta cell dysfunctions. Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) is highly conserved and co-secreted with insulin with over 40% of autopsy cases of T2D showing islet amyloid formation due to IAPP aggregation. Dysregulation in IAPP processing, stabilization and degradation can cause excessive oligomerization with beta cell toxicity. Previous studies examining genetic associations of pathways implicated in IAPP metabolism have yielded conflicting results due to small sample size, insufficient interrogation of gene structure and gene-gene interactions. In this multi-staged study, we screened 89 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 6 candidate genes implicated in IAPP metabolism and tested for independent and joint associations with T2D and beta cell dysfunctions. Positive signals in the stage-1 were confirmed by de novo and in silico analysis in a multi-centre unrelated case-control cohort. We examined the association of significant SNPs with quantitative traits in a subset of controls and performed bioinformatics and relevant functional analyses. Amongst the tag SNPs, rs1583645 in carboxypeptidase E (CPE) and rs6583813 in insulin degrading enzyme (IDE) were associated with 1.09 to 1.28 fold increased risk of T2D (P Meta = 9.4×10(-3) and 0.02 respectively) in a meta-analysis of East Asians. Using genetic risk scores (GRS) with each risk variant scoring 1, subjects with GRS≥3 (8.2% of the cohort) had 56% higher risk of T2D than those with GRS = 0 (P = 0.01). In a subcohort of control subjects, plasma IAPP increased and beta cell function index declined with GRS (P = 0.008 and 0.03 respectively). Bioinformatics and functional analyses of CPE rs1583645 predicted regulatory elements for chromatin modification and transcription factors, suggesting differential DNA-protein interactions and gene expression. Taken together, these results support the importance of dysregulation of IAPP metabolism in T2D in East Asians.

Common polymorphisms in MTNR1B, G6PC2 and GCK are associated with increased fasting plasma glucose and impaired beta-cell function in Chinese subjects.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies identified melatonin receptor 1B (MTNR1B), islet-specific glucose 6 phosphatase catalytic subunit-related protein (G6PC2), glucokinase (GCK) and glucokinase regulatory protein (GCKR) as candidate genes for type 2 diabetes (T2D) acting through elevated fasting plasma glucose (FPG). We examined the associations of the reported common variants of these genes with T2D and glucose homeostasis in three independent Chinese cohorts. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), MTNR1B rs10830963, G6PC2 rs16856187 and rs478333, GCK rs1799884 and GCKR rs780094, were genotyped in 1644 controls (583 adults and 1061 adolescents) and 1342 T2D patients. The G-allele of MTNR1B rs10830963 and the C-alleles of both G6PC2 rs16856187 and rs478333 were associated with higher FPG (0.0034