Researchers at the DZD partner Helmholtz Munich have found that the body begins signaling the risk of type 2 diabetes many years before the disease is diagnosed. In a long-term study, the team examined hundreds of blood metabolites – small molecules that reflect metabolic processes – from participants in the KORA cohort who were followed for 14 years.
The results revealed a distinct pattern: early alterations in the body’s energy metabolism appear first, followed years later by changes in specific amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.
These insights provide a more detailed understanding of how type 2 diabetes develops and may pave the way for earlier detection and more personalized prevention strategies.
“With this publication, we reveal how subtle metabolic changes mark the very earliest stages of diabetes development,” says Dr. Rui Wang-Sattler, Group Leader at the Institute of Translational Genomics. “The reproducibility of our findings across platforms and time points strengthens their reliability and lays the foundation for developing stage‑specific biomarkers and precision strategies for diabetes prevention.”
About the KORA Study
The KORA cohort (Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg) is a long-term population study in Augsburg that explores how lifestyle, genetics, and environmental factors influence chronic diseases and healthy aging. It is funded by Helmholtz Munich and public grants, with data collected together with University Hospital Augsburg. Read more about KORA.
Original-Publikation:
Ge et al., 2025: Integrative Metabolomics of Targeted and Non-targeted Analyses in T2D Progression. Diabetes Care. DOI: 10.2337/dc25-1707
