Home
You can view the current or previous issues of Diabetes Health online, in their entirety, anytime you want.
Click Here To View
See if you qualify for our free healthcare professional magazines. Click here to start your application for Pre-Diabetes Health, Diabetes Health Pharmacist and Diabetes Health Professional.
Latest Diabetes Articles
Popular Diabetes Articles
Highly Recommended Diabetes Articles
Email to a Friend
Send a link to this page to your friends and colleagues.
Discovery of a Suspect Enzyme in Humans Could Lead to Powerful Type 1 Therapy
Once the enzyme was blocked, the damage to beta cells ceased.
An enzyme that destroys pancreatic beta cells in lab mice has now been observed in human beta cells. Because scientists already know how to delete the mouse gene that produces the enzyme, they are hopeful that the same therapy can eventually be applied to people with type 1 diabetes. If so, it would be one of the most powerful therapies yet for addressing the destruction of insulin-producing beta cells that causes type 1.
Researchers at Eastern Virginia Medical School's Strelitz Diabetes Center knew that the enzyme, 12-lipoxygenase (12-LO), produces lipids that cause inflammation, killing pancreatic beta cells in lab animals. They suspected that the same enzyme might also be responsible for beta cell death in humans. Thanks to people who donated their bodies to science through the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Islet Resource Center Consortium, the Virginia researchers were able to confirm their suspicion-12-LO is present in human islets of Langerhans, which contain the insulin-producing cells. In some individuals, certain lipids produced by 12-LO inflame beta cells, leading to their death and an associated decline in insulin production that can range from drastic to total.
Now that researchers have confirmed the existence of 12-LO in humans, they can build on the insights gained in their studies of lab animals. In those studies, they figured out a way to "switch off" the gene that produces 12-LO. Once the enzyme was blocked, the damage to beta cells ceased. If they can find a way to block 12-LO in humans, while combining it with therapies designed to restore beta cells, they will have be in position to create a powerful new therapy for type 1.
The study was headed by Jerry Nadler, MD, chair of internal medicine and director of the Strelitz Diabetes Center. His team's findings were published in the February issue of The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
* * *
Source:
New study finds possible source of beta cell destruction that leads to type 1 diabetes
Categories: Beta Cells, Diabetes, Diabetes, Insulin, Research, Type 1 Issues
You May Also Be Interested In...
-
Diabetes Health
Diabetes Health is the essential resource for people living with diabetes- both newly diagnosed and experienced as well as the professionals who care for them. We provide balanced expert news and information on living healthfully with diabetes. Each issue includes cutting-edge editorial coverage of new products, research, treatment options, and meaningful lifestyle issues.
-
Topics
- Diabetic / Diabetes Health
- Type 1 / 1.5 Diabetes
- Type 2 Diabetes
- Blood Glucose / Sugar
- High/Low Blood Sugar / Fast Acting Glucose
- Insulin- Pumps, Pens & Syringes
- Continuous Glucose Monitors, CGM, Infusion Sets
- Type 2 Medications
- Hyperglycemia
- Hypoglycemia
Comments
This gives us hope for an effective treatment to make this annoying condition go away! It would be amazing to stop diabetes before it even starts.
So how long does "eventually" mean?
Finding a treatment not to develope diabetes is great. Appreciation should be shown to whoever succeeds. But (BUT)eventualy means years???
Sigh. Once again a very promising sounding discovery, but I've been hearing "A cure in within 5 years" since 1961 so I respond to all this with scepticism. Still waiting.
Add your comments about this article below. You can add comments as a registered user or anonymously. If you choose to post anonymously your comments will be sent to our moderator for approval before they appear on this page. If you choose to post as a registered user your comments will appear instantly.
When voicing your views via the comment feature, please respect the Diabetes Health community by refraining from comments that could be considered offensive to other people. Diabetes Health reserves the right to remove comments when necessary to maintain the cordial voice of the diabetes community.
For your privacy and protection, we ask that you do not include personal details such as address or telephone number in any comments posted.
Don't have your Diabetes Health Username? Register now and add your comments to all our content.
Register...
Register your Diabetes Health Username here.
Have Your Say...