New blood test could help identify children’s health risks, study shows

Scientists say a new blood test that analyses lipids could make it easier to identify children at risk of serious health conditions including type two diabetes, liver and heart disease.

Researchers at King’s College London said the test capitalises on a link between lipids and diseases affecting metabolism in children, and could serve as an early warning system for potentially life-threatening illnesses.

Using machines that test blood plasma in babies that already exist in hospitals, doctors could spot early signs of disease in children quicker and help them access treatment, the researchers said.

The study’s principal author, Dr Cristina Legido-Quigley, said: “For decades, scientists have relied on a classification system for lipids that have split them into good and bad cholesterol, but now with a simple blood test we can assess a much broader range of lipid molecules that could serve as vital early warning signs for illness.”

The development has significant implications, said Legido-Quigley, a group leader in systems medicine at King’s and head of systems medicine at the Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen.

“In the future, this has the potential to be an entirely new way to evaluate someone’s personal risk of disease and by studying how to change lipid molecules in the body, we could even prevent metabolic diseases like diabetes altogether.”

The team’s findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine.

The results challenge the idea that cholesterol is a leading cause of complications around obesity in children, identifying new lipid molecules which contribute to health risks like blood pressure but are not only correlated with a child’s weight.

Lipids have traditionally been thought to be fatty acids in the body, either good or bad types of cholesterol or triglycerides. But the scientists now believe that the picture is more complex.

Using a technique called mass spectrometry, they found that the types of different lipids present in the body number in the thousands, each with separate functions.

With a control sample of 1,300 children living with obesity, the team assessed lipids in their blood. Afterwards 200 of them were put on the Holbaek model for a year, a lifestyle intervention for people with obesity that is popular in Denmark.

Subsequent readings showed that among the intervention group, counts of lipids tied to diabetes risk, insulin resistance and blood pressure decreased, despite limited improvements in their BMI.

Dr Karolina Sulek, who performed analysis at Steno, said: “Early recognition of children at risk for these life-threatening diseases is crucial.

“The study provides strong evidence of the great need for obesity management and gives parents confidence to intervene in their children’s life more compassionately, helping them to lose weight.”

The next step for the researchers is to help understand how genetics affects lipids and what this means for metabolic diseases, as well as how these lipids can be changed to improve health.