Precision Medicine in Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: The Relevance of Early-Life Exposures

Abstract

Abstract BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes is highly prevalent and devastating. Obesity is a diabetogenic factor, driving insulin resistance and a compensatory demand for increased insulin secretion from the pancreatic β cells; a failure to address this demand results in diabetes. Accordingly, primary and secondary prevention of obesity are at the core of diabetes prevention programs. The development of obesity and declining β-cell function often span many years or decades before diabetes is clinically manifest. Thus, characterizing the early-life process and risk factors that set disease trajectories may yield novel targets for early intervention and help improve the accuracy of prediction algorithms, factors germane to the emerging field of precision medicine. CONTENT Here, we overview the concepts of precision medicine and fetal programming. We discuss the barriers to preventing obesity and type 2 diabetes in adulthood and present the rationale for considering early-life events in this context. In so doing, we discuss proof-of-concept studies and cutting-edge technological developments that are likely to transform current thinking on the etiology and pathogenesis of obesity and type 2 diabetes. We also review the factors hampering progress, including the success and failures of pregnancy intervention trials. SUMMARY Obesity and type 2 diabetes are among the major health and economic burdens of our time. Defeating these diseases is likely to require life-course approaches, which may include aggressive interventions informed by biomarker profiling undertaken during early life.