The Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) has established a Centre for Monogenic Diabetes. It will test genetic samples from children for mutation that could cause diabetes.
Foundation chairman Dr. V. Mohan said often even doctors mistook the condition in children to be Type 1 diabetes when they could probably be suffering from a genetic mutation. He said that at least 5% of children could suffer from such mutation.
“Monogenic Diabetes refers to forms of diabetes caused by a mutation in a single gene. While there are several forms of monogenic diabetes, the two commonest forms are called maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) and neonatal diabetes. MODY affects children or youth, and family history of diabetes can be traced to three or more generations,” he said. There are several subtypes of MODY, and many of these can be controlled with tablets.
In such cases, insulin injections can be stopped, and the tablets often work better than insulin, Dr. Mohan said.
Dr. Radha Venkatesan, head of genomics at MDRF said, “The centre will use Sanger sequencing, a ‘first generation’ DNA sequencing method, which holds an important place in clinical genomics. It allows doctors to read the human DNA code and understand how particular sequence variations influence the risk of conditions such as monogenic diabetes.”
Health Minister Ma. Subramanian inaugurated the Centre virtually. Dr. Mohan said so far 1,492 samples of children had been tested in the centre, and it had helped diagnose the condition accurately.
A monogenic diabetes registry was launched to track and study its forms on a long-term basis to understand the genetic patterns in families and to deliver optimal therapies for each patient according to their correct etiology.
“We perform genetic testing for patients affected with monogenic forms of diabetes and their families,” Dr. Mohan added.
