Genetics
CETP variant rs708272 ranks among the top ten SNPs in a 24-gene model predicting childhood and adolescent obesity, alongside diet and gut microbiota (Sci Rep 2020)
Original title: Genetic Polymorphisms, Mediterranean Diet and Microbiota-Associated Urolithin Metabotypes can Predict Obesity in Childhood-Adolescence
A study of 415 Spanish children and adolescents (ages 5 to 17) modelled the probability of being overweight or obese using ethnicity, age, sex, Mediterranean diet adherence, physical activity, gut-microbiota-derived urolithin metabotypes, and 53 SNPs from 43 genes linked to obesity and cardiometabolic disease. A proportional-odds ordinal logistic regression found overweight-obesity was most associated with being a young boy with the UM-B or UM-0 urolithin metabotype, low Mediterranean diet adherence, and a consortium of 24 contributing SNPs. Among the ten SNPs contributing most to the model was rs708272 in CETP, alongside variants in ADRB1, ACE, FTO, CRP, UCP2, SELP, LEP and ADIPOQ (twice). The authors call for further research combining dietary intervention and gut microbiota composition to confirm this multi-factor model; CETP is one of ten leading contributors rather than the focus.
Original abstract
Environmental and genetic factors are associated with pandemic obesity since childhood. However, the association of overweight-obesity with these factors, acting as a consortium, has been scarcely studied in children. We aimed here to assess the probabilities of being overweighed-obese in a randomly recruited cohort of Spanish children and adolescents (n = 415, 5-17 years-old) by estimating the odds ratios for different predictor variables, and their relative importance in the prediction. The predictor variables were ethnicity, age, sex, adherence to the Mediterranean diet (KIDMED), physical activity, urolithin metabotypes (UM-A, UM-B and UM-0) as biomarkers of the gut microbiota, and 53 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 43 genes mainly related to obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. A proportional-odds logistic ordinal regression, validated through bootstrap, was used to model the data. While every variable was not independently associated with overweight-obesity, however, the ordinal logistic model revealed that overweight-obesity prevalence was related to being a young boy with either UM-B or UM-0, low KIDMED score and high contribution of a consortium of 24 SNPs, being rs1801253-ADRB1, rs4343-ACE, rs8061518-FTO, rs1130864-CRP, rs659366-UCP2, rs6131-SELP, rs12535708-LEP, rs1501299-ADIPOQ, rs708272-CETP and rs2241766-ADIPOQ the top-ten contributing SNPs. Additional research should confirm and complete this model by including dietary interventions and the individuals' gut microbiota composition.
Summary written by cetpinhibition.org from the published abstract; figures as published. Page updated 18 August 2026. Methods.