Research identifies early biomarker for insulin resistance, glucose intolerance in nondiabetic population

Metabolon, Inc., the leader in metabolomics-based biomarker discovery and analysis, today announced the publication of research that identified a novel, early biomarker for insulin resistance and glucose intolerance in a nondiabetic population. Co-authored by physicians and scientists from EGIR (European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance) and Metabolon, the paper, "alpha-hydroxybutyrate Is an Early Biomarker of Insulin Resistance and Glucose Intolerance in a Nondiabetic Population", appears on the PLoS One website (www.plosone.org) (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010883 (May 28th 2010)).

“alpha-hydroxybutyrate Is an Early Biomarker of Insulin Resistance and Glucose Intolerance in a Nondiabetic Population”

Metabolon's biochemical profiling technology was deployed on plasma samples from 399 nondiabetic subjects from EGIR's large prospective RISC (Relationship between Insulin Sensitivity and Cardiovascular Disease) cohort, representing a broad spectrum of insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. Alpha-hydroxybutyrate was the statistically top-ranked biochemical for classifying subjects as insulin resistant or insulin sensitive. Commenting on the study results, senior RISC author Ele Ferrannini, M.D. summarized, "From this unbiased, biochemical screen, alpha-hydroxybutyrate, an intermediate metabolite of amino acid metabolism, was the strongest biochemical that marks as a single metabolic fingerprint of in vivo human insulin resistance."

Insulin resistance is an abnormal metabolic condition and a recognized clinical predictor of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, with association with obesity, certain cancers, and other metabolic diseases. Metabolon is currently developing a fasted plasma diagnostic test for insulin resistance to allow physicians to more accurately assess their at-risk patient population. As described in the article, alpha-hydroxybutyrate and other metabolites have been identified as a metabolic signature of insulin resistance.