Mexican cohort study reports allele frequencies for six obesity-associated genetic variants

IntroductionObesity represents a significant health challenge worldwide, with an increasing trend and high prevalence in Mexico. This metabolic disease, characterized by an increase in body mass index (BMI), leads to abnormal fat accumulation that contributes to several pathologies, and is determined by a complex interaction between diet, lifestyle and genetic factors, such as single nucleotide variants (SNVs) that may influence appetite regulation, adipose tissue function, energy metabolism, reward mechanisms, motivation, food intake behavior control, energy expenditure, fatty acid transport, lipid accumulation, lipolysis, insulin sensitivity, glucose metabolism, among other biochemical processes. However, the frequency of obesity-associated genetic variants remains poorly characterized in Mexican populations–which are highly admixed–as demonstrated by population genetic studies which have established the influence of this admixture in the prevalence and distribution of obesity-related SNVs.MethodsThis descriptive population genetic study aimed to characterize the genotype and allele frequency distributions of six SNVs previously associated with obesity and metabolic traits: FTO rs9939609, ANKK1/DRD2 rs1800497, MC4R rs17782313, FABP2 rs1799883, ADRB2 rs1042714, and SH2B1 rs4788102 through a cross-sectional design conducted in a cohort from Mexico City (N = 129).Results and DiscussionThe genotyping results revealed substantial variability in allelic frequencies across the analyzed variants, with SH2B1 rs4788102 showing the highest minor allele frequency (MAF) (0.41), followed by ANKK1/DRD2 rs1800497 (0.32) and FTO rs9939609 (0.31), whereas MC4R rs17782313 presented the lowest MAF (0.12). All SNVs were in HWE (p > 0.05). Understanding the prevalence of these obesity-related genetic markers in Mexican populations provides a reference for future genomic and nutrigenomic studies, and may support the development of personalized prevention strategies contributing to deeper insight into the molecular basis of metabolic diseases in Mexico, given the serious public health challenge they represent.