Published on August 21, 2020
Chennai: A recent study entitled ‘Novel subgroups of type 2 diabetes and their association with microvascular outcomes in an Asian Indian population: a data-driven cluster analysis – The INSPIRED STUDY, was published online in BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care on August 18, 2020. This project, called as the INSPIRED study is a collaborative project between the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and Dr.Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, Chennai and the Division of Population, Health and Genomics, and the Division of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Medicine, University of Dundee, School of Medicine, Dundee, Scotland, UK. This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Background of the study:
What are the salient features of this study?
· Recently five distinct “clusters” of individuals with diabetes with significantly different characteristics have been identified in a Scandinavian (White Caucasian) population, based on five parameters representing the clinical presentation as well as the presence of insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction.These five subgroups were termed as Severe Autoimmune Diabetes (SAID), Severe Insulin Deficient Diabetes (SIDD), Severe Insulin Resistant Diabetes (SIRD), Mild Obesity-related Diabetes (MOD) and Mild Age Related Diabetes (MARD).
· Asian Indians (South Asians) represent an ethnic group with high predilection for developing type 2 diabetes; indeed, some of the largest increases in diabetes prevalence have been reported from the South Asian region.
· Type 2 diabetes in Asian Indians differs from that in white Caucasians in a number of significant ways and this referred to as the ‘Asian Indian Phenotype’
· The “Asian Indian Phenotype”, characterized by high levels of abdominal fat and increased insulin resistance even at low levels of body-mass index (BMI), has been postulated as the main reason for this increased propensity to develop type 2 diabetes at younger age. Recent studies from our group suggest that beta-cell dysfunction occurs quite early and rapidly in Asian Indians.
· For the first time in India (and South Asia), clustering of diabetes was done on 19,084 individuals with type 2 diabetes using eight clinically relevant variables (age at diagnosis, BMI, waist circumference, HbA1c, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol and C-peptide fasting and stimulated) and published in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.
What are the novel findings from this study?
What is the significance of this study?
Quotes from authors:
Dr.R.M.Anjana, the Managing Director of Dr.Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and Vice President of Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and the first author of the study said, “Till now we have been treating all type 2 diabetes the same. This is the first time that different clusters of type 2 diabetes have been described in Indians and, hence, the paper is of great interest”.
Dr.V.Mohan, Chairman of Dr.Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre and President of Madras Diabetes Research Foundation and the senior author of the study said that “These sub groups of type 2 diabetes have implications as far as treatment is concerned and the choice of anti-diabetic drugs, for eg. the severely dependent diabetes (SID) variety would probably respond better to sulfonylurea agents or secretagogues or may need insulin, whereas the insulin resistant variety would respond better to an insulin sensitizer like metformin.”
Dr.Colin Palmer, Chair, Department of Pharmacogenomics,School of Medicine, University of Dundee said “These findings appear to be unique to Indians as they differ significantly from the findings published earlier in the Scandinavian population”’.
Dr.Ewan Pearson, Professor, Diabetic Medicine, Division of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Dundee and the senior author of the study added, “We recently reported that Asians respond better to DPP4 inhibitors and SGLT2 inhibitors. The findings of this study confirm the greater insulin secretory defect and the younger age at onset of diabetes in South Asians”.