METHODS: Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was carried out on a 15-year-old male proband of Pakistani ancestry who had severe obesity. This was followed by family segregation analysis, using Sanger sequencing. We also undertook re-analysis of WES data from 91 unrelated adults with severe obesity (86% white European ancestry) from the Personalised Medicine for Morbid Obesity (PMMO) cohort, recruited from the UK National Health Service.
RESULTS: We identified an oligogenic mode of inheritance of obesity in the proband's family-this provided the impetus to reanalyze existing sequence data in a separate dataset. Analysis of PMMO participant data revealed two further patients who carried more than one rare, predicted-deleterious mutation in a known monogenic obesity gene. In all three cases, the genes involved had known autosomal dominant inheritance, with incomplete penetrance.
CONCLUSION: Oligogenic inheritance may explain some of the variable penetrance in Mendelian forms of obesity. We caution clinicians and researchers to avoid confining sequence analysis to individual genes and, in particular, not to stop looking when the first potentially-causative mutation is found.
METHODS: Two Ramadan-focused diabetes education MOOCs were developed and delivered for Ramadan 2023: one for HCPs in English, and another for people with diabetes in English, Arabic and Malay. A user-centred iterative design process was adopted, informed by user feedback from a 2022 pilot MOOC. Evaluation comprised a mixed-methods evaluation of pre- and post-course user surveys.
RESULTS: The platform was utilised by people with diabetes and their family, friends and healthcare professionals. Overall, a total of 1531 users registered for the platform from 50 countries, 809 started a course with a 48% subsequent completion rate among course starters. Qualitative analysis showed users found the course a user-friendly and authoritative information source. In the HCP MOOC, users reported improved post-MOOC Ramadan awareness, associated diabetes knowledge and ability to assess and advise patients in relation to their diabetes during Ramadan (p<0.01).
CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate the potential of MOOCs to deliver culturally tailored, high-quality, scalable, multilingual Ramadan-focused diabetes education to HCPs and people with diabetes.