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Mitochondrial dysfunction in β-cells can cause their immaturity and impaired insulin production, contributing to diabetes. Researchers identified a stress response triggered by damaged mitochondria that prevents these cells from functioning properly, but blocking the response with a drug restored their ability to control glucose in mice. Mitochondrial stress disrupts insulin production in diabetes, but reversing the damage may restore β-cell function. Mitochondria are essential for generating the energy that fuels cells and enables them to function. However, mitochondrial defects are linked to the development of diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Patients with this disorder either cannot produce enough insulin...

Results from a randomized, phase 2 clinical trial show that adding high-dose, intravenous (IV) vitamin C to chemotherapy doubles the overall survival of patients with late-stage metastatic pancreatic cancer from eight months to 16 months. "The results were so strong in showing the benefit of this therapy for patient survival that we were able to stop the trial early." In the study, 34 patients with stage 4 metastatic pancreatic cancer were randomized to receive either standard chemotherapy (gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel), or chemotherapy plus infusions of high-dose vitamin C. The results showed that average overall survival was 16 months for the...

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have identified a new drug target for weight loss that curbs appetite, boosts energy use, and enhances insulin sensitivity without causing nausea or muscle loss. This discovery may pave the way for effective treatments for obesity and type 2 diabetes. Millions worldwide benefit from weight loss drugs derived from the incretin hormone GLP-1. These medications not only aid in weight management but also enhance kidney function, lower the risk of fatal cardiac events, and show potential in protecting against neurodegeneration. However, many individuals discontinue these medications due to common side effects such as nausea...

The mucosal layer in the small intestine degrades with age in rats, allowing digestive enzymes to slowly escape and leak into organs outside the intestine, including the liver, lung, heart, kidney and brain. As the enzymes are unable to distinguish tissues from food, they break down collagen and destroy many receptors on cell membranes, such as the insulin receptor which leads to type 2 diabetes. The researchers call this process autodigestion. Digestion requires powerful enzymes that are synthesized in the pancreas. They are delivered from the pancreas into the lumen of the small intestine, where they digest all the food...

Acute pancreatitis (AP), which affects people of all ages, is one of the leading causes of hospital admission due to gastrointestinal diseases. To date, many questions regarding the optimal treatment of acute pancreatitis remain unanswered. A team combined human genetic epidemiology and animal models to discover and confirm the role of vitamin B12 in the prevention and mitigation of acute pancreatitis. Fan explained that the team first conducted meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS). They then employed a Mendelian randomization approach to investigate the relationships between various one-carbon metabolism nutrients and the risk of pancreatitis. The analysis revealed that higher...

Keto, carnivore, low-carb. These are all just “fad diets,” right? Not so fast. Scientists at UC San Francisco recently published a study in Nature that showed a high-fat ketogenic diet combined with fasting restricted the growth of pancreatic tumors in mice.The study took a look at how certain tumors use ketone bodies as an energy source and that fasting and a ketogenic diet change the way messenger RNA “feeds” those tumors. Let’s take a step back for a moment and talk at a basic level about how this all works. Disclaimer: I am a mere journalist and not a doctor...

Pancreatic cancer is a formidable disease, often diagnosed too late for effective treatment. However, new research represents a promising step toward identifying biological signals or biomarkers that may aid in early detection. By tracking changes in body composition and metabolism, researchers are working to identify high-risk patients who could benefit from selective screening for the disease. "If we catch them early, at stage 1A, their five-year survival rate can be as high as 80%," says Yan Bi, M.D., Ph.D. "Detecting the cancer earlier is the best way to improve survival." Dr. Bi teamed up with Derk Klatte, M.D., Ph.D. to...

People living with diabetes might have a new hope. Scientists have tested a new drug therapy in diabetic mice, and found that it boosted insulin-producing cells by 700% over three months, effectively reversing their disease. Beta cells in the pancreas have the important job of producing insulin in response to blood sugar levels, but a hallmark of diabetes is that these cells are either destroyed or can’t produce enough insulin. The most common treatment is regular injections of insulin to manage blood sugar levels. But a recent avenue of research has involved restoring the function of these beta cells. In...

"It's not a particularly common cancer," says Mark Truty, M.D., a surgical oncologist at Mayo Clinic. "The lifetime risk of pancreatic cancer for any given patient without any predisposing risk is only 1 to 3%." According to the National Cancer Institute, pancreatic cancer accounts for 3.2% of all new cancer cases, but it causes nearly 8% of all cancer deaths. And the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is just 10.8%. Here are five things everyone should know about this deadly cancer: Pancreatic cancer is aggressive and causes nonspecific symptoms.

Like millions of people in the US, artificial intelligence was just something Dianne Balon read about on the news. Little did she know the tech would come to save her life. Despite being a picture of health, an AI-powered blood test in 2022 revealed that one of the world's deadliest cancers was silently forming in Ms Balon's pancreas. It caught the tumor in its earliest form, before it had the chance to grow and spread, which is when the vast majority of pancreatic cancers are caught - at which point it's too late. The results of the test provided a...

Patients with pancreatic cancer who took the benzodiazepine lorazepam (Ativan), commonly prescribed to treat anxiety during cancer treatment, had a shorter progression-free survival than patients who did not, according to results published. In contrast, patients who took the benzodiazepine alprazolam (Xanax) had a significantly longer progression-free survival than patients who did not. The researchers examined the relationship between benzodiazepine use and survival in patients with pancreatic cancer. When adjusted, any benzodiazepine use was associated with a 30% lower risk of pancreatic cancer-related death. However, when Feigin and colleagues studied the relationship between individual benzodiazepines and pancreatic cancer outcomes, they found...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, being highly resistant to chemotherapy. However, there are no effective alternative therapies to chemotherapy, so chemo remains the best available treatment. Researchers report that a hyperglycemic state—that is, one where the blood glucose level is raised—made pancreatic cancer more sensitive to chemotherapy in a mouse model. (Pancreatic cancer is more formally known as Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma and shortened as PDAC). Results were replicated in cell culture and a cohort of patients with metastatic PDAC. These findings present a potentially new method of making chemotherapy more effective against pancreatic cancer,...

Animal cells share some qualities with plant cells, but one key feature ours lack is a rigid cell wall. While this provides structure for plants, it’s also something scientists are increasingly looking at for use in new materials, cellulose technology and, now, insulin delivery. Led by Henry Daniell from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine, researchers have created a promising plant-based insulin, containing the three peptides that occur naturally in insulin, which can also be ingested orally. Just as important as the genetic material on the inside, the plant cell walls are key to the drug's efficacy. Their...

Mouse pancreas cells with high levels of the protein SRSF1; CSHL Professor Adrian Krainer found that mice with high levels of SRFS1 tend to exhibit intraepithelial neoplasia—a known precursor to the most common form of pancreatic cancer. Credit: Krainer lab/Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Researchers at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory found that the protein SRSF1, which regulates RNA splicing, plays a critical role in the development of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), a deadly form of pancreatic cancer. Elevated levels of SRSF1 lead to inflammation and stimulate tumor growth, while restoring normal levels halts the disease’s progress. This discovery could pave...

Credit: Fussenegger Lab / ETH Zurich / Annelisa Leinbach Swiss researchers have developed a sugar-powered implant that automatically produces insulin when blood glucose levels are high — potentially giving people with diabetes an easier, less-painful way to manage their condition. Diabetes management: For people with type 1 diabetes (T1D), the body doesn’t produce enough (or any) insulin, a hormone that converts blood sugar into energy. To prevent their blood glucose levels from being dangerously high, they need regular injections of synthetic insulin. People who manage their diabetes manually must give themselves these painful injections multiple times a day. Those who...

a rendering of pancreatic cancer cells Credit: LASZLO / Adobe Stock A discovery about how pancreatic cancer spreads could lead to better therapies for the hard-to-treat disease, which kills more than 50,000 people in the US every year. Researchers are already testing an existing drug, used for organ transplants, to stop the cancer’s spread. The challenge: Pancreatic cancer is relatively rare, accounting for just 3% of cancers diagnosed in the US, but it’s notoriously hard to beat — 88% of patients die within five years of finding out that they have the disease. A major reason for the low survival...

Consuming a diet rich in vitamin A or its analogs may help prevent children and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) reduce their risk of developing painful pancreas inflammation during chemotherapy treatment. For people with ALL, treatment with the enzyme asparaginase helps starve cancer cells by reducing the amount of asparagine circulating in the blood, which the cancer cells need but cannot make themselves. The medication, often used in combination with other chemotherapies, is given via injection into a vein, muscle, or under the skin. However, an estimated 2% to 10% of asparaginase users develop inflammation of the pancreas...

...Prostate Cancer Illustration Researchers have found that a single enzyme called PI5P4Kα can be targeted to kill prostate cancer. The discovery is the first of its kind and could help tackle treatment resistance in prostate cancer. Additionally, it could lead to better treatment options for other types of cancer, including those affecting the breast, skin, and pancreas. By inhibiting one enzyme, scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys can kill prostate cancer cells when other treatments can’t. For the first time, researchers have discovered that prostate cancer can be killed by targeting a single enzyme, called PI5P4Kα. The findings, published recently in...

A study shows that verapamil, a drug commonly used to treat high blood pressure and heart conditions, can have a beneficial effect on the pancreas in children with newly-diagnosed type 1 diabetes (T1D). Results of the CLVer clinical trial showed that oral verapamil taken once a day improved the pancreas' insulin secretion by 30% over the first year following diagnosis of T1D when compared with a control group that received a placebo. "The beneficial effect of verapamil observed in the trial is extremely exciting," said Antoinette Moran, MD. "Although we don't know whether the beneficial effect of verapamil on insulin...

For the first time, humans with type 1 diabetes, or T1D, have received two treatments called GABA and GAD that have shown promise in animal studies and in isolated human pancreas islets. This clinical trial focused exclusively on children with recent onset T1D. Strategies to ameliorate or cure T1D target the preservation of insulin-secreting beta cells and/or attenuation of the relative excess of alpha cell glucagon. Most importantly, concerning the inhibition of alpha cell glucagon in this trial by GABA/GAD, recent studies in animals made diabetic have shown that inhibition of glucagon leads to expansion of insulin-secreting beta cells and...