Precision Diabetes is Slowly Becoming a Reality

The concept of precision medicine is becoming increasingly popular. The use of big data, genomics and other 'omics ’ like metabolomics, proteomics and trancriptomics could make the dream of personalized medicine become a reality in the near future. As far as polygenic forms of diabetes like type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and type 1 diabetes (T1DM) are concerned, interesting leads are emerging, but precision diabetes i s still in its infancy. However, with regard to monogenic forms of diabetes like Maturity-Onset-diabetes of the young (MODY) and Neonatal Diabetes Mellitus (NDM), rapid strides have been made and precision diabetes has already become part of the clinical tools used at advanced diabetes centres. In p atients with some monogenic forms of diabetes, if the appropriate gene defects are identified, insulin injections can be stopped and they can be replaced with oral sulphonylurea (SU) drugs. In the coming years, rapid strides can be expected to be made in the field of precision diabetes, thereby maki ng the control of diabetes more effective and hopefully leading to prevention of its complications and improvement of the quality of life of people afflicted with diabetes.
Source: Medical Principles and Practice - Category: Internal Medicine Source Type: research