Posted on 01/24/2023 10:02:44 AM PST by ConservativeMind
Researchers have found that a class of older antipsychotic drugs could be a promising new therapeutic option for people with type 2 diabetes, helping fill a need among patients who aren't able to take other currently available treatments.
"There is a need to find new therapies," says John Ussher.
The drug metformin is one of the most common therapeutics for type 2 diabetes, but about 15 percent of patients aren't able to take it. Another type of commonly used drug class (insulin secretagogues) to treat diabetes isn't as effective for later-stage patients, who also need a different option.
"For the patients who can't take metformin, patients with late-stage diabetes where their beta cells aren't working as well, when you're trying to find new therapies or new combination therapies as the disease progresses, it becomes more important to find new drug classes that target new mechanisms so then you have more options to try and lower blood sugar in those individuals," Ussher explains.
The mechanism Ussher and his team turned their attention to is succinyl CoA:3-ketoacid CoA transferase (SCOT), an enzyme involved in the body's process of making energy from ketones. They used computer modeling to find drugs that could potentially interact with SCOT and landed on an older generation of antipsychotic drugs, a drug class called diphenylbutylpiperidines, or DPBP for short.
Ussher and his team had previously found that a specific drug within this class called pimozide could be repurposed to help treat diabetes.
"We've tested three drugs now, and they all interact with this enzyme," says Ussher. "They all improve blood sugar control by preventing the muscle from burning ketones as a fuel source."
"We believe this SCOT inhibition is the reason these antipsychotics might actually have a second life for repurposing as an anti-diabetic agent," he adds.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
You ever see the side effects for old anti-psychotics? Might be cool for type II BUT....
Here is a though: if anti-psychotic drugs are effective against type two diabetes, then perhaps a diet that reduces carb intake and insulin production would help with psychotic issues.
Not that very many will be interested in researching that as there is no money to be made by recommending dietary changes but lots to be made off of medications.
The old double-think. Sometimes playing devils advocate and transposing known treatments does result in new breakthroughs. I have also read that ECT (electro shock therapy) for depression is making a modest comeback as a treatment option for severe depression that proves resistant to drug therapy. Following.
This for a disease that is considered manageable by a healthy diet.
As a diabetic and a sufferer of Bi-polar, I can tell you that letting your blood sugar get out of control will f**k your head up.
>> Keto diet
The goal, I believe, is to not have glycogen storage in the liver — that when released into the blood remains unregulated due to insulin deficiencies. The alternative form of energy would be, as you know, from ketones.
>> article: “They all improve blood sugar control by preventing the muscle from burning ketones as a fuel source.”
That makes no sense to me
Yep. They can isolate the chemical sans the “psychotic reaction” it’ll be well worth it. If not, well, the side effects of a non psychotic person taking an anti psychotic usually doesn’t end well.
Actually, I was being facetious. There is research done on the effects of a low carb/high fat diets and intermittent fasting on mental issues ranging from ADHD to schizophrenia to Parkinsons to Alzheimer’s that show positive results for all those conditions and more. They just don’t get much follow up or attention because no big money to make on diet of healthy, non-processed food. Big pharma and big food all want you to keep buying their chemicals, no matter the damage to your health.
I’m not a doctor, but I’d think forcing cells to use glucose is the best way to pull glucose out of the bloodstream.
Diabetics have dysfunctions that make using all that excess glucose too difficult.
https://www.drugs.com/sfx/pimozide-side-effects.html
safe and effective...
In our carb heavy, standard western diet, our bodies don’t use ketones for energy. With the constant intake of carbohydrates the body can never get into that metabolic mode. Part of the problem is that we get bursts of glucose the body cannot use effectively so the body produces insulin to force cells to take it in and convert it to triglycerides for storage. Most people get too much energy in the form of carbs that the body cannot burn effectively.
The dysfunction that effects most type 2 diabetics is insulin resistance; the cells are saturated with glucose and triglycerides and don’t want to take more. At some point the pancreas cannot make enough insulin to force the cells to absorb at the rate needed to counter carbohydrate intake and blood sugar goes out of control.
How a drug that blocks ketones is supposed to be effective in a population that hardly uses ketones metabolically does not make much sense.
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