Diagnosis of a person's risk of developing atherosclerosis or diabetic retinopathy based on leucine 7 to proline 7 polymorphism in the prepro-neuropeptide Y gene

Abstract

The invention relates to methods for diagnosing a person's susceptibility for having an increased risk for the development of atherosclerosis and a diabetic person's susceptibility for having an increased risk for the development of diabetic retinopathy. The invention relates further to methods for treating persons diagnosed for having increased risk for the development of said diseases, in order to prevent the development of said diseases. The invention also concerns methods to investigate or screen pharmaceuticals or genetic aims useful in the treatment of said diseases, by using an animal model including a transgenic animal.

1 . A method for treating a person, diagnosed for having an increased risk for the development of atherosclerosis on the basis of a polymorphism in the signal peptide part of the human preproNPY, said polymorphism comprising the substitution of proline for the position 7 leucine in the signal peptide part of said preproNPY, for the prevention of developing atherosclerosis, comprising administering to said person an effective amount of an agent counteracting the influence of the mutated NPY gene.  
     
     
         2  The method according to  claim 1 , wherein said agent is a pharmaceutical aimed to modulate gene expression of normal or mutated NPY gene.  
     
     
         3 . A method for treating a diabetic person, diagnosed for having an increased risk for the development of diabetic retinopathy on the basis of a polymorphism in the signal peptide part of the human preproNPY, said polymorphism comprising the substitution of proline for the position 7 leucine in the signal peptide part of said preproNPY, for the prevention of developing diabetic retinopathy, comprising administering to said person an effective amount of an agent that modulates gene expression of the NPY gene comprising said polymorphism, wherein said agent is an antisense oligonucleotide that is complementary to the sequence 5′-acaagcgaccgg-3′ (SEQ ID NO:9) and includes a nucleotide complementary to the nucleotide c at position 10 of SEQ ID NO:9.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said oligonucleotide is said antisense oligonucleotide comprises 7 or 8 nucleotides.