Next- Generation Sequencing is an Effective Method for Diagnosing Patients with Different Forms of Monogenic Diabetes

Aim: Monogenic diabetes (MD) represents 5-7% of antibody-negative diabetes cases and is a heterogeneous group of disorders.

Methods: We used targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) on Illumina NextSeq 550 platform involving the SureSelect assay to perform genetic and clinical characteristics of a study group of 684 individuals, including 542 patients referred from 12 Polish Diabetes Centers with suspected MD diagnosed between December 2016 and December 2019 and their 142 family members (FM).

Results: In 198 probands (36.5%) and 66 FM (46.5%) heterozygous causative variants were confirmed in 11 different MD-related genes, including 31 novel mutations, with the highest number in the GCK gene (206/264), 22/264 in the HNF1A gene and 8/264 in the KCNJ11 gene. Of the 183 probands with MODY1-5 diabetes, 48.6% of them were diagnosed at the pre-diabetes stage and most of them (68.7%) were on diet only at the time of genetic diagnosis, while 31.3% were additionally treated with oral hypoglycaemic drugs and/or insulin.

Conclusions: In summary, the results obtained confirm the efficacy of targeted NGS method in the molecular diagnosis of patients with suspected MD and broaden the spectrum of new causal variants, while updating our knowledge of the clinical features of patients defined as having MD.