Basic Sciences of Medicine 2012, 1(5): 40-45 DOI: 10.5923/j.medicine.20120105.04 Molecular Screening of Obesity Candidate Gene Variant Neuropeptide Y Receptor Type 2 (NPY2R) A172T among Malaysian Subjects Yau-Wei Lee 1 , Phee-Phee Chia 2 , Yee-How Say 1,* 1 Department of Biomedical Science, Faculty of Science 2 Department of Science and Engineering, Centre for Foundation Studies, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) Perak Campus, 31900, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia Abstract The association of the A172T Neuropeptide Y Receptor Type 2 (NPY2R) gene with obesity and metabolic syndrome has not been widely studied in the Malaysian population. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the association of NPY2R A172T gene variant with obesity, metabolic syndrome, related anthropometric measurements, glucose level, blood pressure and the demographic characteristics among Kampar Health Clinic subjects. In total, 168 subjects (68 males, 100 females; 66 obese, 102 non obese; 47 Malay, 89 Chinese, 32 Indians) were recruited in this study via convenience sampling and anthropometric measurements were taken. Genotyping was performed using HaeIII Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) revealing 121 AA, 37 AT and 10 TT subjects; minor allele frequency 0.170. NPY2R A172T genotypes and alleles did not show any association with obesity (p = 0.982; 0.857, respectively), gender (p = 0.129; 0.245, respectively) and ethnicity (p = 0.581; 0.390, respectively). Besides, they did not show any association with the presence of metabolic syndrome according to 3 criteria in the modified NCEP ATP III (p = 0.447; 0.288, respectively). In conclusion, the NPY2R A172T gene variant was not associated with obesity, obesity-related traits and metabolic syndrome among Malaysian subjects in this study. Keywords Neuropeptide Y Receptor 2, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism, Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, Anthropometric Measurements, Malaysia 1. Introduction Obesity is defined as a state of increased adiposity resulting from chronic nutrient excess and it has reached its epidemic levels in modern society. Malaysia is part of this epidemic too, whereby the prevalence rate of obesity has increased from 4.4% to 14.0% as reported by the Malaysian National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) II in 1996 and NHMS III in 2006, respectively[1]. The increased prevalence of obesity has been accompanied by a parallel increase in the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) or “syndrome X”[2]. The definition in diagnosing MetS was first introduced by WHO in 1998 whereby this definition focused on insulin resistance as a main criterion[3]. In addition, the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Panel Treatment III (NCEP ATP III) and International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) introduced their own set of criteria in diagnosing metabolic syndrome in 2001 and 2005, * Corresponding author: sayyh@utar.edu.my (Yee-How Say) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/medicine Copyright © 2012 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved respectively[4,5]. NCEP ATP III criteria are based on the presence of 3 out of 5 factors in diagnosing metabolic syndrome and the risk factors are waist circumference >102 cm in men and >88cm in women, blood pressure, serum cholesterol, plasma triglycerides and fasting blood glucose[4]. This definition is rather suitable in the US population than Asians due to the low prevalence of metabolic syndrome among Asians[6]. Thus, a modified version of NCEP-ATP III is made in waist circumference for Asians; > 80 cm for women and >90 cm in men is used to define central obesity[7,8]. The neuropeptide Y receptor type 2 (NPY2R) is one of the class of G-protein coupled receptors activated by closely related peptide hormones - neuropeptide Y (NPY), peptide YY (PYY) and pancreatic polypeptide[9]. NPY2R has a heptahelix structure which comprises glycosylation site at the amino-terminal, two extracellular cysteines which form a disulfide bridge and a cysteine molecule at the cytoplasmic tail of the N-linked carbohydrate[10]. It binds selectively to Y2 receptor subtype agonists such as NPY 3-36 and PYY 3-36[ 11]. The gene encoding for it, NPY2R, is located on chromosome 4q32.1 which consists 8447 kilobases including 2 exons and the coding region is located on the