Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

In vivo drug discovery for increasing incretin-expressing cells in diabetes
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-vivo-drug ... cells.html
by Karolinska Institutet

A new study published in Cell Chemical Biology describes an alternative approach to treat diabetes by identifying drugs directly increasing the number of incretin-expressing cells. The work results from researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

"We have previously performed unbiased small molecule screens for novel potential ways of treating diabetes by targeting the insulin-producing beta-cells. However, what I think is exciting with this work is that we leveraged our unique in vivo drug-discovery approach to a different organ and enteroendocrine cells, which also have the potential to improve management of diabetes," says principal researcher Olov Andersson from the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology.

Hormones released from the gut have important roles in modulating satiety, insulin secretion and blood glucose levels. Of relevance to diabetes, the incretins are hormones secreted upon food intake to enhance insulin secretion and reduce blood glucose levels. There are two different incretins that are called GIP and GLP-1. To identify small molecules that directly increase the number of incretin-expressing cells, the researchers established a high-throughput in vivo chemical screen by measuring the amount of GIP in zebrafish. Several of the identified drug candidates increase the number of incretin-expressing cells and improve glucose control in both zebrafish and diabetic mice.
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

New drug candidate developed to treat type 2 diabetes
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08- ... betes.html
by Birgit Niesing, Deutsches Zentrum für Diabetesforschung
A team of researchers from Helmholtz Munich, the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) and Novo Nordisk have developed a new hormone combination for the future treatment of type 2 diabetes. The scientists have combined the blood sugar-reducing effects of the drugs tesaglitazar and GLP-1 (Glucagon-like peptide-1) in a new and highly effective drug. The advantage is that, by combining tesaglitazar with GLP-1, the tesaglitazar only enters tissue that contains GLP-1 receptors. This reduces the adverse effects of tesaglitazar while increasing the effects on sugar metabolism. The new drug has already been successfully tested in animal studies. The findings were published in Nature Metabolism.

The drug tesaglitazar improves glucose and fat metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes. It acts on two receptors within the cell nucleus to increase insulin sensitivity. This was proven in phase 3 clinical trials. However, tesaglitazar also caused unwanted effects, such as signs of kidney damage. Nevertheless, in order to use the drug therapeutically, the researchers used a trick: They biochemically combined tesaglitazar with the gastrointestinal hormone GLP-1, which since several years successfully used to treat type 2 diabetes. This allows the combined drug to only act on cells and tissue that contain GLP-1 receptors.

"This trick enabled us to combine the blood sugar-reducing effects of GLP-1 and tesaglitazar into a single highly effective molecule, while keeping tesaglitazar away from tissues that it could damage," explains PD Dr. Timo Müller, corresponding author, director of the Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, and scientist at DZD.
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

Breakthrough results in developing an oral insulin tablet
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08- ... ablet.html
by University of British Columbia
A team of University of British Columbia researchers working on developing oral insulin tablets as a replacement for daily insulin injections have made a game-changing discovery.

Researchers have discovered that insulin from the latest version of their oral tablets is absorbed by rats in the same way that injected insulin is.

"These exciting results show that we are on the right track in developing an insulin formulation that will no longer need to be injected before every meal, improving the quality of life, as well as mental health, of more than nine million type 1 diabetics around the world," says professor Dr. Anubhav Pratap-Singh, the principal investigator from the faculty of land and food systems.

He explains the inspiration behind the search for a non-injectable insulin comes from his diabetic father who has been injecting insulin 3-4 times a day for the past 15 years.
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

Researchers identify multiple causal genes that drive type 2 diabetes risk
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... betes.html
by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have used advanced three-dimensional mapping techniques at a microscopic level to identify a multitude of genetic variants and corresponding target gene pairings in the pancreas that are implicated in type 2 diabetes. In addition to these discoveries, the resulting datasets will serve as a key resource for researchers all over the world to delve deeper into the genetic origins of type 2 diabetes and further explore the roles of different types of cells in the development of the disease.

The findings were published today in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Type 2 diabetes cases are on the rise and being diagnosed in patients earlier in life than what has been historically observed. However, while many cases can be attributed to a rise in obesity and sedentary lifestyle, increasing evidence suggests a strong role that genetic risk factors play in this relatively common disease. Prior genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of genetic variants associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

New York governor declares disaster emergency after polio found in wastewater

Source: Reuters

Sept 9 (Reuters) - New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency on Friday after samples of the polio virus were discovered in wastewater in three counties outside of New York City.

Hochul's executive order came more than a month after an adult in Rockland County, north of New York City, was diagnosed with the disease in July. It was the first confirmed case of polio in the United States in nearly a decade.

The declaration would expand the number of people authorized to administer polio vaccines and other steps to accelerate inoculation rates. The state of emergency will stay in effect until October 9. The polio virus was present in wastewater samples collected as early as April, Hochul's executive order said.

Virus was detected in wastewater samples taken in Orange, Rockland and Sullivan counties every month since April, indicating the virus was present in the state before the Rockland County case was found in July.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-yo ... 022-09-09/
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

Diabetes: When circadian lipid rhythms go wrong
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... wrong.html
by University of Geneva
Like all living beings, human physiological processes are influenced by circadian rhythms. The disruption of our internal clocks due to an increasingly unbalanced lifestyle is directly linked to the explosion in cases of type 2 diabetes. Now, a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG), in Switzerland, has found that his disturbance disrupts the metabolism of lipids in the cells that secrete glucose-regulating hormones. Sphingolipids and phospholipids, lipids located on the cell membrane, seem to be particularly affected. This change in lipid profiles then leads to a rigidity of the membrane of these cells. These results, appearing in the journal PLOS Biology, provide further evidence of the importance of circadian rhythms in metabolic disorders.

Lipids have a variety of cellular functions. As one of the main components of cell membranes, they are involved in the signaling pathways through which cells communicate with each other and with their environment. "We have known for some time that the disruption of circadian clocks was closely linked to metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, where the body is no longer able to regulate blood sugar levels effectively," explains Charna Dibner, a professor in the Departments of Surgery and of Cellular Physiology and Metabolism, as well as in the Diabetes Center of the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine and the HUG, who led this research. "It is also established that lipids play a significant role in metabolic disorders. But the impact of circadian rhythms on lipid functions remained unknown."
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

COVID-19 associated with increase in new diagnoses of type 1 diabetes in youth, by as much as 72%
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... youth.html
by Case Western Reserve University
Children who were infected with COVID-19 show a substantially higher risk of developing type 1 diabetes (T1D), according to a new study that analyzed electronic health records of more than 1 million patients ages 18 and younger.

In a study published today in the journal JAMA Network Open, researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine report that children and adolescents who contracted COVID-19 were more prone to developing T1D in the six months following their COVID diagnosis.

The findings showed a 72% increase in new diagnoses of T1D in COVID-19 patients 18 years old and younger—although the research emphasized that it is unclear whether COVID-19 triggers new onset of T1D.

About 187,000 children and adolescents younger than 20 live with T1D nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

Widespread dysregulation of metabolism in type 2 diabetes
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... betes.html
by Kerstin Henriksson, Uppsala University

Using state of the art techniques, researchers from Uppsala University have shown that the metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes was much more disturbed than previously known, and that it varied between organs and severity of the disease. The study is a collaboration with e.g. Copenhagen University and AstraZeneca and it has been published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.

The most typical alterations in people with type 2 diabetes are insufficient secretion of insulin and reduced sensitivity to insulin in different organs. To examine what happens in these organs when type 2 diabetes develops, the researchers in the current study have studied proteins both in the cell islets in the pancreas where insulin is produced, and in the main tissues that insulin acts on, namely the liver, skeletal muscle, fat and blood.

Diabetes and prediabetes

The researchers compared proteins in samples from people with type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, i.e. a stage before fully developed type 2 diabetes, and without any diabetes. The results showed far more disturbances in different metabolic pathways than previously known. There was also a correlation between the alterations and the different stages of the disease.

"We detected many protein levels that were either higher or lower than normal in tissues from people at different stages of disease. People with prediabetes displayed major alterations that are associated with inflammation, coagulation and the immune system in the pancreatic islets. In fully developed type 2 diabetes there were more wide-spread abnormalities, for example in lipid and glucose metabolism and in energy production in liver, muscle and fat," says Professor Claes Wadelius, who coordinated the study.
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

Pancreatic image bank expected to help advance diabetes research worldwide
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... betes.html
by University of Exeter
The most extensive image bank of samples of the pancreas from children who developed diabetes shortly before death has gone live at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, with the aim to advance global medical research in the diabetes field.

The University of Exeter and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) teamed up to make high-resolution images of pancreatic tissue available in Pancreatlas, the world's first on-line imaging database of human pancreatic tissue created and housed at VUMC.

The pancreas contains the beta cells that produce the insulin that controls blood sugar and because of this is implicated in diseases such as diabetes. The image bank is a valuable asset to researchers because the human pancreas cannot be safely biopsied, and study of the cellular changes that cause type 1 diabetes can only be undertaken in pancreas specimens from individuals with the disease following their death.
weatheriscool
Posts: 12724
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: Diabetes news, discovery and discussion thread

Post by weatheriscool »

South Asian people undergo type 2 diabetes remission with low calorie diets
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11- ... ssion.html
by University of Glasgow

People of South Asian ethnicity may be able to achieve type 2 diabetes remissions by following a structured weight management program, according to a new study which saw one third of participants lose more than 10% of their body weight.

The findings from the STANDby trial—led by the University of Glasgow and published in The Lancet Regional Health—Southeast Asia—used a formula diet as "total diet replacement" for up to 12 weeks in people of South Asian ethnicity, and found sufficient weight loss was achieved by around 40% of all participants to allow for remission of their type 2 diabetes.

Globally, type 2 diabetes (T2D) affects over 400 million people, and almost 4 million, or one in ten adults in the UK.

Around one in four people worldwide are of South Asian origin, with considerably higher risk of T2D than the general UK/European white population, developing the condition at a lower body mass index and at younger ages.

Recent work from the DiRECT study, also led by the University of Glasgow, has shown how weight loss of 10 kg or more, using an evidence-based weight management program called "Counterweight-Plus," resulted in remission of diabetes after one year, in 70% of people with diagnosed T2D of less than six years' duration. Almost half (46%) of all participants in the DiRECT study achieved remission. However, in DiRECT, almost all participants were white British, so more research was required to understand its implications in other ethnic groups.
Post Reply