Domain-Specific Software Engineering Design for Diabetes Mellitus Study Through Gene and Retinopathy Analysis

Software engineering designs and practices differ widely among various application domains. This chapter is concentrating on high performance software engineering design for bioinformatics and more specifically for diabetes mellitus study through gene and retinopathy analysis. Complex gene interaction study offers an effective control of blood glucose, blood pressure and lipids. Early detection of retinopathy is effective in minimizing the risk of irreversible vision loss and other long-term consequence associated with diabetes mellitus. Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a disorder of glucose homeostasis involving complex gene and environmental interactions that are incompletely understood. Mammalian homologs of nematode sex determination genes have recently been implicated in glucose homeostasis and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The Fem1b knockout (Fem1b-KO) mice have been developed, with targeted inactivation of Fem1b, a homolog of the nematode fem-1 sex determination gene. It shows that the Fem1b-KO mice display abnormal glucose tolerance and that this is due predominantly to defective glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Arginine-stimulated insulin secretion is also affected. These data implicate Fem1b in pancreatic islet function and insulin secretion, strengthening evidence that a genetic pathway homologous to nematode sex determination may be involved in glucose homeostasis and suggesting novel genes and processes as potential candidates in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus. In addition, this chapter is going to introduce basic gene analysis approaches that can be applied on diabetes mellitus study. These approaches include searching Genbank online database using BLAST, mapping DNA, locating genes, aligning different DNA or protein sequences, determining genotypes, and comparing nucleotide or amino acid sequences using global and local alignment algorithms. Fem1b gene, as an example, is going to be discussed with these basic gene analysis approaches. Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of new cases of blindness among Americans aged 20 to 64 in both predominantly white and black populations [1]. Despite the recommendation for yearly eye examinations and efforts to achieve this, of the approximately 17 million Americans with diabetes, about 6 million nationwide remain undiagnosed and untreated, or not receiving annual eye examinations, which can lead to diabetic retinopathy [2]. Early indications of retinal blood vessel abnormalities and complications provide important indicators for clinical timely diagnosis and treatment of diabetes mellitus and eye disorders. The software engineering design tool facilitates increasing the number of annual diabetic