Scientists say a new blood test that analyzes lipids could make it easier to identify children at risk of serious health conditions, including type two diabetes, liver and heart disease.
Researchers at King’s College London said the test capitalizes on a link between lipids and diseases that affect metabolism in children, and could serve as an early warning system for potentially life-threatening diseases.
By using machines that test blood plasma from babies that already exist in hospitals, doctors can spot early signs of disease in children more quickly and help them access treatment, the researchers said.
The lead author of the study, Dr Cristina Legido-Quigley, said: “For decades, scientists have relied on a classification system for lipids that divided them into good and bad cholesterol, but now with a simple blood test we can larger range determined. of lipid molecules that can serve as essential early warning signs of disease.”
The development has significant implications, says Legido-Quigley, a group leader in systems medicine at King’s and head of systems medicine at the Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen.
“In the future, this has the potential to be a completely new way to assess someone’s personal risk of disease and by studying how to change lipid molecules in the body, we can even completely prevent metabolic diseases like diabetes.”
The team’s findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine.
The results challenge the idea that cholesterol is a major cause of childhood obesity complications, and identify new lipid molecules that contribute to health risks such as blood pressure, but are not only correlated with a child’s weight.
Lipids have traditionally been thought to be fatty acids in the body, either good or bad types of cholesterol or triglycerides. But the scientists now believe that the picture is more complex.
Using a technique called mass spectrometry, they found that the types of different lipids present in the body number in the thousands, each with distinct functions.
Using a control sample of 1,300 children living with obesity, the team assessed lipids in their blood. Then 200 of them were put on the Holbaek model for a year, a lifestyle intervention for people with obesity popular in Denmark.
Subsequent readings showed that among the intervention group, scores of lipids linked to diabetes risk, insulin resistance and blood pressure decreased, despite limited improvements in their BMI.
Dr Karolina Sulek, who conducted analysis at Steno, said: “Early recognition of children at risk of these life-threatening diseases is crucial.
“The study provides strong evidence of the great need for obesity management and gives parents confidence to intervene more compassionately in their children’s lives and help them lose weight.”
The next step for the researchers is to help understand how genetics affect lipids and what this means for metabolic diseases, as well as how these lipids can be changed to improve health.
