MUTATION SCREENING AND ASSOCIATION ANALYSIS OF PC-1 AND IRS-1 GENE IN TYPE II DIABETIC PATIENTS FROM NORTHERN INDIA.

Type-II Diabetes is the most common form of Diabetes and accounts for more than 90 percent of all diabetes cases. This disease is also closely associated with Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and obesity. It has been seen that Asian Indians seems to be highly susceptible to this disease. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) estimates the total number of diabetic subjects to be around 40.9 million in India and this is further set to rise to 69.9 million by the year 2025. Genetic factors play an important role in the development of this disease and the major focus is on insulin signaling pathway. Major focus of our research is on the mutation screening and association analysis of PC-1 and IRS-1 gene in Type II diabetic patients from Northern India. Now first of all we have to understand why these genes are important in Type-II Diabetes. Both these genes are involved in insulin signaling pathway. Insulin Receptor Substrate-1 plays a key role in transmitting signals from the insulin and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) receptors to intracellular pathways PI3K / Akt and Erk MAP kinase pathways.IRS-1 plays important biological function for both metabolic and mitogenic (growth promoting) pathways. Plasma cell membrane glycoprotein-1 (PC-1) affects insulin signalling by direct interaction with insulin receptor α-subunit blocking insulin action.PC-1 is expressed in many tissues and inhibits insulin signalling either at the level of the insulin receptor or downstream at a postreceptor site. An elevated PC-1 content in insulin target tissues may play an important role in the development of insulin resistance in obesity and T2DM mellitus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]