Pharmacogenetics of the Response to GLP-1 in Mexican-Americans With Prediabetes

This project uses both transcriptomic- and genomic-level data to identify mechanisms of individual responses to glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) in Mexican-Americans with prediabetes. The GLP-1 hormone is essential for glucose reduction, weight loss, cardiovascular risk reduction, and renal protection. Newly discovered mechanisms will illuminate causal links between disease genotype and phenotype, which may ultimately guide personalized therapeutic approaches for type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, and other related diseases.

This clinical trial will uncover new mechanisms of inter-individual responses to endogenous and exogenous glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) in Hispanics/Latinos (H/Ls) with prediabetes. The results move the management of prediabetes, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and relevant metabolic diseases to a more individualized approach in an understudied and at-risk population. Few options exist for prediabetes treatment, and the current pharmaceutical management of T2DM does not predict drug treatment failures, nor differences in individual treatment responses and adverse effects. A precise, genetics-based approach will provide superior therapeutic management for patients. GLP-1-based therapies reduce blood glucose, promote weight loss, decrease cardiovascular events, and improve renal function. Prior genetic studies, most done in Caucasians, identified associations between genetic variants and decreased GLP-1-induced insulin secretion, in an effort to guide individualized treatment. However, these associations do not provide a clear mechanistic relationship between genotype and phenotype. Transcriptomic analyses will uncover many of these mechanisms. Here, we propose to 1) test the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that regulate expression (eQTLs) of 11 candidate genes in a range of relevant metabolic tissues with differential GLP-1 response, 2) perform RNA sequencing before and after treatment to identify eQTLs in blood that predict response to GLP-1 therapy and develop risk-based prediction models in H/Ls, and 3) determine the effects of genetic regulation of candidate genes and newly discovered eQTLs phenome-wide in a large existing biobank, BioVU. For aims 1 and 2, responses will be measured in 300 study subjects with prediabetes recruited from an established Mexican-American cohort via the oral minimal model method, before and after GLP-1 therapy, quantifying GLP-1 hormone efficacy and GLP-1-induced pancreatic beta cell insulin release and peripheral insulin sensitivity. Procedures include serial measurements of plasma glucose, insulin, C-peptide, and GLP-1, and peripheral blood collection for RNA sequencing. Our central hypotheses are: (1) metabolic tissue-based eQTLs of GLP-1-associated genes will be associated with physiological response to endogenous and exogenous GLP-1,(2) identification of eQTLs associated with GLP-1 treatment-induced changes in whole blood will identify new gene targets, and (3) this data will lead to the creation of eQTL-based prediction models for related diseases. The study is innovative because it uses a novel combination of eQTL analysis and oral minimal model to assess GLP-1 response, examines a population highly underrepresented in pharmacogenomic studies, and utilizes novel statistical methods and applications to study gene expression. The significance of this newly acquired mechanistic information will ultimately guide precision therapeutic regimens for diabetes prevention and treatment, weight loss, cardiovascular risk reduction, and related metabolic complications in an understudied population.