The most common endocrine cancer is thyroid cancer, affecting approximately one percent of the population. Scientists from deCODE genetics, a bio-pharmaceutical company have discovered humans with the two single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) 9q22 and 14q13 located on their chromosome are at a higher risk of thyroid cancer. This was concluded after the analysis of 40,000 patients genomes from the companies database presenting that these two single letter variations in the human genome where in fact related to patients associated with an increased risk of the disease.
This information was earlier provided by a study carried out in 2009 by Gudmundsson et al. Information was gathered from European patients and found that the 9q22.33 allele is associated with low concentration of thyroxin (T-4) and high concentration of tri-iodothyronine (T-3) - releases more iodine within the hormones. However studies showed that both alleles are linked to producing low concentrations of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH). Over expression of T3 and T4 lead to the increase in heart rate and blood flow to other organs, an increase in the carbohydrate and fat metabolism, increase in basal metabolic rate of almost all cells in the body as well as boosting protein synthesis. deCODE utilizes this information to benefit future patients that give the company a swap of their saliva for laboratory diagnostic testing.
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