Scientists and Clinicians from the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology here have identified a gene called Cathepsin B, the second candidate gene after SPINK-I, which is likely to independently cause the disease of Tropical Calcific Pancreatitis, unique to India and neighbouring countries.
Addressing newspersons here today, Dr Lalji Singh, CCMB Director Lalji Singh and Asian Institute of Gastroenterology Director Nageshwar D.Reddy said this was an important discovery which would change the course of treatment of the disease and enable prevention of future complications by mere change of lifestyle and food habits.
Tropical Calcific Pancreatitis is only found in many parts of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It is totally different from Pancreatitis affecting the remaining parts of the world, they said.
So far it was assumed that food habits and environmental factors caused the disease but research by the two institutes has confirmed the cause is genetic and peculiar to the region.
Reddy said a large number of pancreatitis patients had severe stomach pain, indigestion and many of them later developed cancer and diabetes and usually died by the age of forty.
Earlier, the same team had identified another gene SPINK-I responsible for the problem but subsequent research proved that SPINK-I was not the only gene responsible for Tropical Calcific Pancreatitis.