Can Type 2 diabetes be cured with just a simple injection?
Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found a single injection of the protein FGF1 can restore blood sugar levels to a healthy range for two days, the Science Daily reported.
Also, the researchers learned sustained treatment can also reverse insulin insensitivity, the cause of diabetes—and without the side effects of present treatments.
"Controlling glucose is a dominant problem in our society. And FGF1 offers a new method to control glucose in a powerful and unexpected way," said Ronald Evans, director of Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory and author of the paper.
"With FGF1, we really haven't seen hypoglycemia or other common side effects. It may be that FGF1 leads to a more 'normal' type of response compared to other drugs because it metabolizes quickly in the body and targets certain cell types," added Salk postdoctoral research fellow Jae Myoung Suh, a member of Evans' lab and first author of the new paper.
Scientists believe this could lead to a new generation of safer, more effective diabetes drugs.
The treatment could also potentially help patients of Type 2 diabetes, which can stem from excess weight and inactivity and which has increased dramatically in the past few decades.
While diabetes has no specific cure, it is managed with diet, exercise and pharmaceuticals.
Other researchers on the study included Maryam Ahmadian, Eiji Yoshihara, Weiwei Fan, Yun-Qiang Yin, Ruth Yu, and Annette R. Atkins of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies; Weilin Liu, Johan Jonker, Theo van Dijk, and Rick Havinga of the University of Groningen; Christopher Liddle of the University of Sydney; Denise Lackey, Olivia Osborn, and Jerrold Olefsky of the University of California at San Diego; and Regina Goetz, Zhifeng Huang, and Moosa Mohammadi of the New York University School of Medicine.
Injecting protein
In their study, Evans' team injected FGF1 into obese mice with diabetes - and found a single dose managed to drop blood sugar levels to normal levels in all the diabetic mice.
"Many previous studies that injected FGF1 showed no effect on healthy mice. However, when we injected it into a diabetic mouse, we saw a dramatic improvement in glucose," said Michael Downes, a senior staff scientist and co-corresponding author.
Also, the researchers found the FGF1 treatment had advantages over the diabetes drug Actos, which allegedly has side effects ranging from unwanted weight gain to dangerous heart and liver problems.
The team also found FGF1 did not trigger these side effects or cause glucose levels to drop to dangerously low levels, even at high doses.
"Instead, the injections restored the body's own ability to naturally regulate insulin and blood sugar levels, keeping glucose amounts within a safe range — effectively reversing the core symptoms of diabetes," Science Daily said.
Questions
Despite the findings, researchers have yet to fully understand the mechanism of FGF1, though their findings may bring the protein a step closer to therapeutic use.
"We want to move this to people by developing a new generation of FGF1 variants that solely affect glucose and not cell growth. If we can find the perfect variation, I think we will have on our hands a very new, very effective tool for glucose control," Evans said. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News
source : http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/371303/scitech/science/can-one-simple-injection-cure-diabetes
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