Home> News & Events> Diabetes News> Archives> 2021> 210314
Gamma-glutamylglycine is only associated with the occurrence of diabetes
Many elderly people suffer from multiple diseases at the same time, which often have a common cause. Scientists point this outinside the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) in the Charit – Universittsmedizin Berlin together with Kolleginside from Munich and Great Britain. To do this, they evaluated data from more than 11,000 study participantsinside, of which both the course of the disease and blood values were available. The results allow a comprehensive approach to disease prevention. The scientists have their resultsinside now published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Many older people suffer from several, often very different diseases at the same time, a condition also known as multimorbidity. Their quality of life is often severely limited; they receive medication from different doctors, which are often not sufficiently coordinated with one another. Observations indicate that certain diseases occur more often together, but the causes for this are largely in the dark.
Data from more than 11,000 participants
In a recent study, a team led by BIH professor Claudia Langenberg, head of the Computational Medicine group, and scientistsin Munich and Great Britain a number of metabolic processes have now been found that are not only associated with one, but simultaneously with up to 14 diseases. The scientistsinside evaluated data from more than 11,000 participants in the prospective EPIC-Norfolk health study. This records measured values from the blood as well as clinical data on diseases.
“We wanted to know whether there are certain markers in the blood that influence the risk not just for one but for several diseases at the same time,” explains Claudia Langenberg. To do this, the scientists investigatedinside, first of all, the concentration of hundreds of different molecules in the blood samples of a total of 11,000 study participantsInside. Then they tested the concentration of each of these metabolites with a total of 27 serious illnesses of the participantswas connected inside. The metabolites included not only known metabolic products such as sugar, fats or vitamins, but also substances whose concentration depends on genetic or environmental factors. So could the scientistsDetect inside with the so-called “molecular profiling” for example degradation products of drugs, coffee consumption or the contribution of intestinal bacteria.
Electronic health records for over 20 years
The blood samples had been taken from the participants 20 years ago and have since been stored at minus 196 degrees Celsius. Back then, people were mostly healthy. The diseases they then developed were systematically and in detail recorded over more than 20 years using electronic hospital data. “This enabled us to research how the concentration in the blood of hundreds of molecules is related to the development of one or multiple diseases,” explains Claudia Langenberg.
The team found out that the concentration of some metabolic products in the blood was linked to impaired liver and kidney function, obesity or chronic inflammation. But they also discovered that certain lifestyle factors or a reduced diversity of intestinal bacteria, the so-called intestinal microbiome, influence blood values and thus provide information about the development of diseases over the years. It was found that half of all detected molecules were associated with an increased or decreased risk of at least one disease. The majority did this with several, sometimes very different diseases and thus pointed to metabolic pathways that increase the risk of multimorbidity.
Two thirds of all metabolites are associated with more than one disease
“For example, we found that an increased concentration of the sugar-like molecule N-Actelylneuraminat increased the risk of 14 diseases,” explains Maik Pietzner, scientist at Claudia Langenberg and first author of the publication. “Gamma-glutamylglycine, on the other hand, is only associated with the occurrence of diabetes. Other members of the same groups of molecules increase the risk of liver and heart disease at the same time.” Claudia Langenberg adds: “Overall, we have observed that two thirds of the molecules are associated with the occurrence of more than one disease. This fits in with the fact that patients often develop a number of diseases in the course of their lives we are now able to influence these key factors, should this make it possible to confront several diseases at the same time. “
All results freely available
The extensive analyzes of the scientistsinside allow an insight into the various influencing factors on the human metabolism, which was previously not possible in this level of detail. To this reference scientistTo make it accessible from all over the world, the authors have specially developed a web application, omicscience.org. It makes all results available in graphical form so that they can be used in new studies. Claudia Langenberg adds: “The website enables scientists to determine essential influencing factors for each molecule in which they are interested or to discover completely new connections to diseases. All of this was only possible because we took a systematic and data-oriented approach have used. “
last edited: 14.03.2021
– .
