American scientists are introducing a major population-based research in order to inspect the genetic and environmental factors that may lead to various diseases such as asthma, Alzheimer’s, cancer, depression, diabetes, heart disease and reproductive problems, for example.
That is the first research of this kind in the United States since the Framingham Heart Study started in 1948 with approximately 5 000 men and women. Data coming from that project has helped identify the risk factors and best methods of treatment for heart disease ever since.
"This research keeps on providing information that has significantly altered the way in which cardiovascular disease is prevented and controlled," Dr Robert Pearl, executive director and chief executive officer of The Permanente Medical Group in California, which will sponsor the latest study, stated in the course of a Wednesday teleconference.
The objective of the Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health is to find out which genes and environmental factors are associated with particular illnesses, he explained.
Builds on mapping of genome
"This study will bring a lot of benefits to people in the future, due to the fact that it uses what we have learned in the mapping of the human genome and builds on that, therefore we are able to better understand the environmental and genetic factors influencing human illness and how this illness can be treated," Dr David Kessler, dean of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and former head of the US Food and Drug Administration, said in the course of the teleconference.
To begin with, Kaiser is spending $7 million and mailing requests to its nearly two million adult members of HMO in northern California, asking them to participate in the research. Kaiser hopes to recruit 500 000 partakers. The preliminary survey will ask questions concerning their background, health history, lifestyle and habits, and family medical history.
After that, those who register with the research and give written approval will be asked to provide blood or saliva samples that can be used in order to attain genetic information.
Of great importance
Pearl expects this research to be as important in the 21st century as Framingham was in the 20th century. "This research will make it possible for us to understand how the individual genetic makeup of patients interacts with the environment - the air they breathe, the water they drink and their lifestyle - to either lead to or prevent the development of various diseases," he said.
The research will also permit scientists to see the effect of new medications as they are used by thousands of people.
One of the distinctive aspects of the Kaiser research is that scientists will have chance to tie population-based data directly with patient’s medical records. "The program will finally connect survey responses with clinical data and eventually with genetic information," Dr Joe Selby, the director of Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research, said in the course of the briefing.
Kaiser expects to obtain extra money from the US National Institutes of Health and other sources. And as the research progresses over the years, Kaiser is planning to share the data with other investigators and organizations.
More significant research coming up
"It’s been significantly difficult to finance and register people with these sort of research in the United States," explained Eugenia E. Calle, managing director of analytic epidemiology at the American Cancer Society. "There is a new cohort that is being created in the United Kingdom known as the UK Biobank, which will also connect survey data with medical records and include 500 000 people," she informed.
According to Calle, one of the crucial aspects of the latest American research is that the partakers can be followed for 20 to 30 years. "You can question them over the years. New medications appear on the market, new hypotheses develop, and you are in a position to ask new questions and keep on following them," she said.
Calle informed that the American Cancer Society is also beginning a new population-based research. "We are enrolling all over the world and our objective is 500 000 people," she explained. "If we do not begin the new research, we literally lose the ability to learn our times," she said.
