Researchers Discover Rare New Type of Diabetes Affecting Newborns Worldwide .A little-known gene turns out to be vital for insulin production in the earliest stages of life.
Recent advances in DNA sequencing, combined with new stem cell research approaches, have allowed an international group of scientists to identify a previously unrecognized form of diabetes that appears in infancy.
Researchers at the University of Exeter Medical School, working alongside colleagues at Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium and other institutions, determined that changes in the TMEM167A gene are responsible for this rare type of neonatal diabetes.
Diabetes can emerge in some babies within the first six months of life, and in more than 85 percent of these cases, the cause lies in inherited genetic mutations. In a study led by the University of Exeter, scientists examined six children who also had neurological conditions such as epilepsy and microcephaly and found that all shared alterations in a single gene,TMEM167A.
Stem cell and gene-editing insights into TMEM167A
To clarify how this gene functions, Professor Miriam Cnop’s team at ULB used stem cells that were guided to become pancreatic beta cells and applied gene editing techniques (CRISPR). Their experiments showed that when TMEM167A is disrupted, insulin-producing cells lose their ability to function properly. As a result, these cells trigger stress responses that ultimately lead to their death.
Dr. Elisa de Franco, at the University of Exeter, said: “Finding the DNA changes that cause diabetes in babies gives us a unique way to find the genes that play key roles in making and secreting insulin. In this collaborative study, the finding of specific DNA changes causing this rare type of diabetes in 6 children, led us to clarifying the function of a little-known gene, TMEM167A, showing how it plays a key role in insulin secretion.”
Professor Cnop said: “The ability to generate insulin-producing cells from stem cells has enabled us to study what is dysfunctional in the beta cells of patients with rare forms as well as other types of diabetes. This is an extraordinary model for studying disease mechanisms and testing treatments.”
