Interaction of antioxidant gene variants and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes mellitus.

: Diabetes is the seventh most common disease leading to death with a global estimate of 425 million diabetics, expected to be 629 million in 2045. The role of reactive metabolites and antioxidants, such as glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and catalase in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) provides an opportunity for identifying gene variants and risk genotypes. We hypothesised that certain antioxidant gene-gene interactions are linked with T2DM and can model disease risk prediction.: Genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in antioxidant genes for glutathione (), glutathione peroxidase (), superoxide dismutase () and catalase (CAT) was performed in 558 T2DMs and 410 age and sex matched healthy controls by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), routine lab indices by standard techniques.: The null/null allele combination of del and del increased disease risk up to 1.7-fold. The combination of SNPs in del, del, + 313A/G and in -21A/T, + 47C/T, + 599C/T increased the risk of diabetes 13.5 and 2.1-fold, respectively. Interaction of SNPs del, del, + 313A/G (105Ile/Val), -21A/T, + 47C/T, + 599C/T were significantly linked with disease risk >5 × 10 fold.: As the number of gene combinations increase, there is a rise in the odds ratio of disease risk, suggesting that gene-gene interaction plays an important role in T2DM susceptibility. Individuals who possess the del, del, 105I/V(+313A/G), -21A/T, + 47C/T and + 599C/T are at very high risk of developing T2DM.