Posted on 06/09/2011 7:00:31 PM PDT by decimon
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In a mouse study, scientists at Mayo Clinic Florida have demonstrated the feasibility of a promising new strategy for treating human type 2 diabetes, which affects more than 200 million people worldwide.
In type 2 diabetes, the body stops responding efficiently to insulin, a hormone that controls blood sugar. To compensate for the insensitivity to insulin, many diabetes drugs work by boosting insulin levels; for example, by injecting more insulin or by increasing the amount of insulin secreted from the pancreas. The new study, published in the June 9 issue of PLoS ONE, showed that a different approach could also be effective for treating diabetes — namely, blocking the breakdown of insulin, after it is secreted from the pancreas.
"Insulin levels in the blood reflect the balance between how much is secreted and how fast it is broken down," says the study's lead researcher, Malcolm A. Leissring, Ph.D., from Mayo Clinic's Department of Neuroscience. "Blocking the breakdown of insulin is simply an alternative method for achieving the same goal as many existing diabetes therapies."
The researchers tested this idea by studying mice in which insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) was "knocked out," or deleted genetically. IDE is a molecular "machine" that normally chews up the insulin hormone, breaking it down into smaller pieces. Levels of insulin in the blood are controlled, in part, by this process.
(Excerpt) Read more at mayoclinic.org ...
Ping
According to the AMA it is better to sell people more drugs of unknown side-effects than it is to tell them to move more and eat less.
FReepmail me if you want on or off the diabetes ping list.
Inhibition of Insulin-Degrading Enzyme, IDE, might work for all diabetics, but what are the side effects? IDE as a keyword has some articles. Thanks decimon.
Innersetin’
Thanks for the article and the tip.
A person would still need insulin. They would just need less of it and it would last longer.
There are already long lasting insulins. I don’t see how this would make a big benefit to the patient. Just new risks.
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