By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Maggie Fox, Health And Science Editor – Wed Dec 16, 5:16 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Will a gene bring healthful blessings or the curse of disease? It may depend on whether it is inherited from mom or dad, researchers reported on Wednesday.
A team at Iceland's Decode Genetics Inc found mutations in five disease-related genes that only take effect if inherited from a certain parent.
One, a new gene associated with diabetes, protects from the disease if inherited from the mother but raises the risk if inherited from the father. Three other diabetes genes also varied in their effects, but less so, depending on which parent it came from, the researchers reported in the journal Nature.
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The researchers were struck the most by the newly discovered type-2 diabetes gene, a so-called single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP -- a single-letter change in the genetic code.
"The impact of the type-2 diabetes variant is not only large, but unusual: if an individual inherits it from their father, the variant increases risk of diabetes by more than 30 percent compared to those who inherit the non diabetes-linked version,' the researchers wrote.
"If inherited maternally, the variant lowers risk by more than 10 percent," they added.
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The company filed for bankruptcy protection in November after its drug development programs stalled and sales for its DNA tests for diseases failed to bring in much cash.
Stefansson nonetheless believes the company has a product to sell, based on its unique genetic science.
"This we can do because of the large amount of data we have assembled on the Icelandic population," he said.
"We can use these tools to discover and integrate rarer variants into our tests and scans, identify drug targets for licensing, and put our know-how at the disposal of our service customers."
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It's too bad about this company's financial problems. This sounds like it might be a situation where it government funding would be desirable. I hope a frequent pattern in the past doesn't happen here, where the profits are made by someone who comes along and steals the ideas, w/o having the cost of developing it.
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