A cautionary tale: the non-causal association between type 2 diabetes risk SNP rs7756992 and levels of non-coding RNA CDKAL1-v1

摘要

Aims/hypothesisIntronic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CDKAL1 gene are associated with risk of developing type 2 diabetes. A strong correlation between risk alleles and lower levels of the non-coding RNA, CDKAL1-v1, has recently been reported in whole blood extracted from Japanese individuals. We sought to replicate this association in two independent cohorts: one using whole blood from white UK-resident individuals, and one using a collection of human pancreatic islets, a more relevant tissue type to study with respect to the aetiology of diabetes.