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Newly discovered protein linked to gestational diabetes
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The newly discovered protein, HKDC1, may be a genetic predictor of hyperglycemic development during pregnancy, according to study findings published in Nature Communications.
For the past 40 years, researchers have agreed that four hexokinases govern the body’s process of obtaining energy from food, but the new discovery suggests another enzyme is involved, according to a press release.
“This swims against the past 40 years of research and what we thought we knew,” Timothy E. Reddy, PhD, assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Duke University Medical Center, said in the release. “Hexokinases are critical to basically all of our energy production. Finding a fifth one opens the door to more study into how we metabolize sugar, as well as genetic links to metabolic disorders.”
Timothy E. Reddy
Reddy and colleagues found that the haplotypes originally associated with gestational hyperglycemia reduce the expression of HKDC1 and disrupt regulatory element activity leading to the hypothesis that reduced expression of the gene may affect the ability to metabolize glucose during pregnancy.
“The discovery of this gene creates a path forward to better predicting a woman’s risk,” Reddy said. “Knowing that there is this new hexokinase at play could also give us more information on how to inhibit or activate it, and anything we can do to disrupt the cycle would be an important advance to stem the epidemic of diabetes we see today.”
Study researcher William Lowe, MD, professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said that further studies of HKDC1 may help create new treatments for metabolic conditions.
“While maintaining appropriate nutrition throughout pregnancy is foremost, these findings may ultimately enable genetic tests to identify women who are particularly susceptible to gestational diabetes and who may benefit from more careful monitoring,” Reddy told Endocrine Today. – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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