Chronic Diseases

Chronic diseases are diseases of long duration with slow but through progression. Chronic diseases, as exemplified by heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, are by far the leading cause of mortality in the world, representing almost 60% of all deaths.

You probably remember Mendelian rules of genetic transmission from high school years. The classical example of peas and genes. The take home message was that one gene was responsible for one characteristic of the particular pea. The classical Mendelian understanding has long been put on the shelves after gene expression profiling become available after 1998. Many genetic conditions including diseases are shown to be a function of multiple genes.

Recently, groups of genes have been characterized that are unique to chronic diseases. These genes play a role in more than one chronic disease and denote an aging related mechanism for the chronic diseases.

These genes are potential drug targets. A drug on one group may be effective in curing multiple chronic diseases. As such one drug may cure Alzheimer's disease and heart disease together.

If you search on PubMed with "chronic disease genes" you will see the relevant literature.

Better understanding of chronic disease mechanisms leads to better diagnosis and treatment.