A big multinational study discovered that gout is a chronic ailment caused primarily by heredity, rather than the sufferer’s lifestyle choices. The genome-wide association study, led by researchers from the University of Otago and published in Nature Genetics, examined the genetic information of 2.6 million individuals.
Researchers analyzed combined DNA data sets from around the globe. Approximately three-quarters of the data came from customers of 23andMe, Inc, a direct-to-consumer genetics and preventative health organization, who agreed to engage in research. They discovered that inherited genetics play a key role in why some people develop gout while the majority do not.
Senior author Professor Tony Merriman, of Otago’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, hopes the findings will remove some of the stigma around gout.
We hope that, in time, better and more accessible treatments will become available with the new targets we identified. Gout deserves more health spend resource and greater prioritisation in the health system.
Tony Merriman
“Gout is a chronic disease with a hereditary basis and is not the patient’s fault; the notion that gout is caused by lifestyle or nutrition must be debunked. This prevalent belief generates shame in persons with gout, leading some to suffer in quiet rather than consult a doctor for a preventive medicine that decreases urate in the blood and relieves pain.”
“People need to understand that while specific dietary factors, such as eating red meat, can trigger gout attacks, the fundamental cause is high urate levels, crystals in the joints, and an immune system primed to ‘attack’ the crystals — genetics plays an important role in all of these processes.”
The research identified a large number of immune genes and immune pathways that provide new targets and approaches for preventing gout attacks. Professor Merriman hopes these findings will lead to improved treatment for gout sufferers.
“We hope that, in time, better and more accessible treatments will become available with the new targets we identified,” he says.
One such option could be the repurposing of a drug used to treat a range of other immune-related diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis — tocilizumab targets a receptor for an immune signaller, interleukin-6, which the research identified as a new gene for gout.
“Gout deserves more health spend resource and greater prioritisation in the health system.”
Information about gout:
– Gout is the most common form of arthritis in men; it affects about 3-4 times more men than women
– Gout attacks are caused by severe inflammation in the joints that arises from reaction to crystals of urate. These crystals form in the joints when urate levels in the body are high.
– Diet plays a very small role in high urate levels but it is well established as a trigger of gout in people with urate crystals in their joints.
– Gout can be effectively treated by drugs (such as allopurinol) which lower the urate in the blood and prevent urate crystal forming in the joints (or dissolve them if they are already there).
– Gout is a chronic disease so treatment is lifelong.
