A diagnosis of type I diabetes means a life sentence of medical follow-up.
While treatments have become simpler and less restrictive in recent years, they are still a burden, especially for young patients. The latest study published in the journal Nature by Dr. Constantin Polychronakos, Director of the Pediatric Endocrinology Department at the MUHC, in collaboration with Dr. Hakon Hakonarson, Director of the Centre for Applied Genomics of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), provides hope that this situation will evolve in the long term toward a cure for this disease.
Using innovative high-density DNA microchip technology, which can test 550,000 genes in a single analysis, Drs. Polychronakos and Hakonarson have detected a new gene involved in type I diabetes. To date, only 4 of the genes responsible for this disease had been identified,this now makes 5. "We believe there are approximately 15 genes involved in insulin-dependent diabetes; our study proved that high-density DNA microchips are effective and we hope to use them to identify all of these genes in the near future," explained Dr. Polychronakos, also a professor of pediatrics and human genetics at McGill University.