Are Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Depression Part of a Common Clock Genes Network?

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and depression across the world. This growing public health problem has produced an increasing socioeconomic burden to the populations of all affected countries. Despite an awareness by public health officials and medical researchers of the costs associated with these diseases, there still remain many aspects of how they develop that are not understood. In this article, we propose that the circadian clock could be a factor that coordinates both the neurobehavioral and metabolic processes that underlie depression and T2DM. We propose further that this perspective, one which emphasizes the regulatory effects of clock gene activity, may provide insights into how T2DM and depression interact with one another, and may thus open a new pathway for managing and treating these disorders.