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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : May 23, 2014 11:41 AM IST
In a ray of hope for millions of people suffering from type 2 diabetes worldwide, researchers have discovered a molecule that inhibits the breakdown of insulin in mice.
The compound blocked a protein called insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) in mice.
'If you inhibit the enzyme that breaks down insulin, insulin levels in your body should be higher and your blood glucose should be lower,' said David Liu, a chemical biologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Since people with type 2 diabetes tend to have low insulin levels, it could lead to new ways of treating the disease, he noted.
IDE has proved difficult to inhibit.
Liu, along with his colleague Alan Saghatelian, screened a wide range of molecules that are both stable and specific.
They then tested the effects of the strongest candidate molecule in lean and obese mice given glucose.
As expected, blood sugar levels dropped faster in those that received the inhibitor than in control mice, whether the mice were lean or obese.
The team also found something surprising: the IDE inhibitor had the opposite effect when the mice were injected with glucose rather than ingesting it.
The reason for the different responses could be that IDE also affects two other gut hormones that regulate blood sugar - amylin and glucagon.
For example, mice that received the inhibitor had higher levels of glucagon, a hormone that boosts blood sugar levels following glucose injection.
However, according to Liu, mice that ingest glucose tend to have much higher insulin levels than mice that are injected with it.
'You could probably aim for a short lived IDE inhibitor that is taken before a meal,' Liu concluded in the study published in the journal Nature.
What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a life long disease that is characterised by increased levels of sugar in the blood. It is either caused due to lack of insulin (a protein that regulates blood glucose levels) or due to lack of response to insulinproduced by the body. Diabetes caused by lack of insulin is called type 1 diabetes. It develops due to fault in the genes that make insulin and is seen in young adults and teenagers. Diabetes caused by failure of response to insulin is called type 2 diabetes. It is more common type of diabetes and is found in adults. It is caused mainly due to lifestyle factors. Some of the common symptoms of diabetes are hunger, frequent urination and increased thirst. Factors like unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle and obesity are main contributing factors of type 2 diabetes. In fact, type 2 diabetes is one of the most common 'lifestyle diseases' which is plaguing people in the developed countries. Diabetes is also known to cause complications like heart diseasesand hypertension. In this section you will find answers to all your queries regarding diabetes. For example, why is it difficult to manage diabetes, how often you should use a glucometer to monitor blood glucose level, can you take honey if you are diabetic and much more. You can find a lot of helpful suggestions to prevent diabetes, reduce your risk of diabetes, natural remedies to control diabetes, healthy food choices for diabetics, etc.
With inputs from IANS
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