Researchers from Harvard and Brigham and Women’s Hospital say their study is the first to fully evaluate the link between mutations in sodium glucose co-transporter-1 (SGLT-1)—the gene responsible for absorbing glucose in the gut—and cardiometabolic disease.
The researchers used genetic data from 8,478 participants in the 25-year Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities (ARIC) study. The participants who carried the mutation (6%) had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, were less obese, had a lower incidence of heart failure, and a lower mortality rate than did those without the mutation, regardless of dietary intake.
The researchers suggest that their findings “open the door to improved therapies” for cardiometabolic diseases.