Study finds that genetics, not lifestyle, is the main cause of gout

A major international study found that gout is a chronic disease in which genetics is the main cause, rather than the patient’s lifestyle choices.

Led by researchers at the University of Otago, the genome-wide association study, published in Nature Geneticsanalyzed the genetic information of 2.6 million people.

The researchers analyzed the combined DNA data from around the world. About three-quarters of the data came from customers of 23andMe, Inc., a consumer genetics and health prevention company, which agreed to participate in the survey.

Researchers have found that genetics is an important part of why some people develop gout and many others do not.

Senior author Professor Tony Merriman, from Otago’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, hopes the findings will remove the stigma surrounding gout.

“Gout is a chronic disease that has a genetic basis and is not the patient’s fault – the myth that gout is caused by lifestyle or diet should be dispelled.

“This widespread condition causes shame in people with gout, which causes some people to suffer in silence and not go to the doctor to get an anticoagulant that lowers blood urate and he will stop their pain.

“People need to understand that although certain foods, such as eating red meat, can trigger a gout attack, the primary cause is high urate levels, crystals in the joints, and the immune system. which aims to ‘attack’ the crystals – genes play an important role in all these processes.”

The study found a large number of genes and immune systems that provide new targets and methods to prevent gout attacks.

Professor Merriman hopes that these findings will lead to improved treatment for people with gout.

“Hopefully, over time, better and more accessible treatments will become available with the new targets we’ve chosen,” he says.

One such option would be to replace a drug used to treat other immune-related diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis – tocilizumab targets a receptor for an immune signal. disease, interleukin-6, which research has identified as a new type of gout.

Facts about gout:

• Gout is the most common type of arthritis in men; it affects men about 3-4 times more than women.
• Gout attacks are caused by severe inflammation in the joints that occurs in response to urate crystals. 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 is well established as a cause of gout in people with urate crystals in their joints.
• Gout can be effectively treated with drugs (such as allopurinol) that lower urate in the blood and prevent the formation of urate crystals in the joints (or dissolve them if they are already present).
• Gout is a chronic disease, so treatment is lifelong.