1. Underestimated risk of secondary complications in pathogenic and glucose-elevating GCK variant carriers with type 2 diabetes.
- Author
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Schiabor Barrett KM, Telis N, McEwen LM, Burrows EK, Khuder B, Judge DP, Pawloski PA, Grzymski JJ, Washington NL, Bolze A, and Cirulli ET
- Abstract
Background: Natural HbA1c levels in GCK Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (GCK-MODY) patients often sit above the diagnostic threshold for type 2 diabetes (T2D). Treatments to lower HbA1c levels show reduced effectiveness in these individuals, yet in case studies to date, GCK-MODY patients often evade secondary T2D complications. Given these deviations, genetic screening of GCK may be clinically useful, but population studies are needed to more broadly understand T2D-related complications in GCK variant carriers., Methods: To identify GCK variant carriers at the population level, we used both ACMG/AMP variant interpretation for GCK-MODY pathogenicity and a state-of-the-art variant interpretation strategy based on functional and statistical evidence to predict glucose elevations. Presence of pathogenic and glucose-elevating GCK variants was assessed in two cohorts (n~535,000). We identified 442 individuals with GCK variants predicted to increase glucose (~1/1200), with 150 (34%) of these individuals harboring variants reaching a pathogenic interpretation., Results: In a retrospective analysis, we show that in addition to elevated HbA1c, pathogenic variant carriers are 10x as likely, and all other glucose-elevating GCK variant carriers are 3x as likely, to receive a T2D diagnosis compared to non-GCK carriers. Surprisingly, carriers of pathogenic and glucose-elevating GCK variants with T2D develop T2D-related complications at rates more than double that of individuals without T2D, comparable to non-GCK individuals with T2D., Conclusions: This population-level assessment shows secondary complications in individuals with pathogenic and glucose-elevating GCK variants and T2D and suggests that genotyping for these variants should be considered in a precision medicine approach for T2D treatment and prevention., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare the following competing interests: KMSB, NT, BK, LMM, NLW, AB and ETC are all employees of Helix. EKB is an employee at Johnson and Johnson, however, at the time of writing she was affiliated with Helix. A patent has been filed by Helix for the Power Window analysis technique with ETC, KMSB, and NLW as inventors, and its current status is unpublished (application number 17575894). JJG is employed by UNR and Renown Health and has received funding from Gilead Sciences for work not related to this study. DPJ has received consulting fees from Alnylam, Attralus, BridgeBio, Lexeo Therapeutics, and Novo Nordisk in the past 2 years. Ethics: The Helix cohorts were reviewed by Salus IRB (Reliance on Salus for all sites) and approved (approval number 21143), the WCG IRB (Western Institutional Review Board, WIRB-Copernicus Group) and approved (approval number 20224919), the MUSC Institutional Review Board for Human Research and approved (approval number Pro00129083), and the University of Nevada, Reno Institutional Review Board and approved (approval number 7701703417). The UK Biobank study was approved by the North West Multicenter Research Ethics Committee, United Kingdom. All participants gave their informed, written consent before participation. All data used for research were de-identified., (© 2024. The Author(s).)
- Published
- 2024
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