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New Type2 Diabetes Treatment May Provide A Cure

Posted by timothy on Sat Jun 05, 2004 03:12 PM
from the bobby-shaftoe's-pal dept.
Biotech Science
rusty0101 writes "Over at HealthDay, they have an article noting how a new trial drug for Type2 Diabetes may also help provide a cure to diabetes. Its primary benefit is that it does not have the side effect of causing weight gain; in fact on average people in the trial lost 6.3 lb. Note, this isn't a great way to lose weight, but for many Type 2 diabetics, loosing weight can improve their condition." How comfortable would you be swallowing a drug made from Gila monster spit?
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[+] Researchers May Have Found Cause of Type 2 Diabetes 181 comments
ozmanjusri writes "Scientists at Sydney's Garvan Institute have identified an enzyme called PKCepsilon as the active agent that blocks the production of insulin in diabetics. Insulin injections and implants try to control levels but do not address the reasons why insulin production is failing. This discovery may allow pharmaceutical companies to develop a drug to block the enzyme, allowing cells in the pancreas to function normally, though the team's leader, Trevor Biden, says 'What we've identified is a target that we can now latch onto to get therapy, but the journey from target to tablet of course is a long one ... It's probably going to take another 10 years at least to get something that's effective in humans.'"
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New Type2 Diabetes Treatment May Provide A Cure 45 Comments More /

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  • How Comfotable Would I be? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FlipmodePlaya (719010) on Saturday June 05 2004, @03:16PM (#9345801) Journal
    'How comfortable would I be swallowing a drug made from Gila monster spit?'

    About as comfortable as I am eating Pig hoof, or whatever is supposed to be hot dogs, I suppose. It's not like they're going to market it as a 'Gila Saliva Supplement'...

  • How comfortable would you be swallowing... (Score:5, Informative)

    by ForestGrump (644805) on Saturday June 05 2004, @03:20PM (#9345824) Homepage Journal
    a drug made from Gila monster spit?

    No, "it is a synthetic version of the hormone exendin-4, found in the saliva of the Gila monster..."

    Saying the drug is made from Gila monster spit is like saying Rogaine (hair growh thing) is made from rat urine...which it isn't. Rogaine is synthetic. The chemical its made from was originally discovered in rat urnie, however.

    -grump

    • Re:How comfortable would you be swallowing... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by dmayle (200765) on Saturday June 05 2004, @06:32PM (#9346917) Homepage Journal
      My aunt had her leg amputated. My father was ill in general, and died because he was lying in the wrong position. If I have to drink Gila semen to survive (my family has a history of Diabetes, and I'm doing everything to make sure I'm not trapped) I'LL DO IT. You'll find that a lot of our stupid little prejudices dissappear when your life is on the line... I just hope that a change in life practices means that I'm not subject to the same stupidities that did in my ancestores.
      • Amen to that. I was just diagnosed with Type 2 last year. Fortunately we caught it in the early stages (I was barely over the "line") and I seem to be able to control it through watching my diet and daily exercise.

        My sister-in-law, however, is not doing well. Even glucophage has not been able to bring her blood sugar under control. Just recently she began having to inject insulin. She would be a good candidate for this drug.

        Many people who joke about diabetes now probably don't realize that they alre

    • Re:Already cured... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by kayen_telva (676872) on Saturday June 05 2004, @03:28PM (#9345864)
      my grandmother had type 2 diabetes and was nowhere near being "fat". Your "fuck em all" attitude works fine in nature, but to some extent humans have removed themselves from that reality. you can bitch and moan but reality trudges onward, research will be done, drugs will be developed, and people who would have otherwise died will live on to reproduce. I agree with your underlying idea/premise, but your apporach and demeanor leave something to be desired.

      • Re:Already cured... (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Additionally, a lot of people are fat for the same reasons that they develop diabetes. I went from being perfectly fit (multiple sports my entire life hours per day) to obese and borderline diabetic due to a metabolic problem. That problem lead to both the inability to maintain a normal weight *and* the diabetic diagnosis.

        I'm doing all I can to reverse things before it's too late. But it's definitely a stupid thing to claim that you only get diabetes because you're fat. Sometimes that's true, but often bei

    • Re:Already cured... (Score:5, Informative)

      by rusty0101 (565565) on Saturday June 05 2004, @03:40PM (#9345939) Homepage Journal
      I have friends who are in excelent shape, yet are still Type 2 diabetics. Just because the leading cause of Type 2 diabetes is obesity, does not mean that all people who have become type 2 diabetics are overweight.

      Type 2 diabeties has killed two uncles and an aunt of mine. So I have a reason to pay attention to the subject, and do what I can to stay healthy.

      I do partially agree with you. If you have aquired Type 2 Diabetes as a result of your choice in lifestyle, (over eating mostly) it is your responsibility to do whatever it takes to remedy the cause of your case. If that means get on a healty diet and exercise regime, then do that. No, it won't cure all your ills, but a large percentage of people who do loose weight, and correct their diet have a much more managable situation. At that point this treatment may even cure your condition. This treatment may also help you get to the better situation.

      -Rusty
    • We humans thought up a little add-on to evolution that you seem to be in the dark about. Its called civilization.

    • The ignorance exhibited in your post is stultifying.

      Imagine, for a moment, being one of many souls who are dealt a really crappy genetic hand and spend their ENTIRE lives fighting weight problems. We're not just talking about people who can't resist McJunkFood, but someone who's always had the metabolic rate of a snail. Follow that person through school, college, and into adulthood--see them try a thousand diet and exercise programs, some of which rebound into eating disorders--and then see their lives b

  • requisite (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How comfortable would you be swallowing a drug made from Gila monster spit?

    I for one welcome our Gila monster overlord!

  • duh (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 05 2004, @05:40PM (#9346625)
    "How comfortable would you be swallowing a drug made from Gila monster spit?"

    A better question: Who wouldn't swallow it if it meant the difference between life and death?

    • Re:duh (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      An unfourtunatly large amount of people. There's a surprising amount out there who live in a near state of denial about their illness. I worked in a pharmacy for a while, and we would constantly see people skipping doses because they didn't feel like taking it that morning, or even refusing to get refills of generics because the pills were "the wrong color". A large amount of the time when questioned they would state that they "were healthy people" who were the exception to the rule of whatever they had. It

  • Treatment not cure... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hung_himself (774451) on Saturday June 05 2004, @05:55PM (#9346703)
    Just a clarification, the article never claims it is a cure, just that it is a better drug to control the symptoms of type II diabetes with fewer side effects. It states that whether it actually stops the deterioration of islet cells in humans (which would be a cure) is not known though it does seem to do so in animals.

    Sounds reasonable and looks promising if true.
    • The article says animal tests have shown "formation of new beta cells". If that can be replicated in humans, we may finally have a cure, after 70 years of insulin therapy and it's deleterious effects.

      My personal interest is in type-1, not type-2, as my son suffers from it. Over the years, all the research on cures for type-1 has focused on islet-cell transplants. But if there's something that can grow new beta cells, that's a quantum leap forward and to one side.

      Here's hoping!
  • Can we please at least try to demonstrate the correct use of "lose" in a headline?!? Is the weight chafing at the lead to flee from the patient's body? Arghh!
  • "How comfortable would you be swallowing a drug made from Gila monster spit?" I don't know. How comfortable are you "swallowing" a "drug" made from "Gila Monster" "spit"? Thank you. I'm here all week.
  • This approach targets only a minor part of the group of diabetes-patients.

    Group 2 diabetes patients have a peripheral resistence to insuline - their cells do not react to all the insuline in their blood.
    It's no big use increasing the insuline load.

    On the other hand, we have some never drugs than the cited metformine already available.

    • Re:forget it... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Rob Simpson (533360) <bertsimpson AT yahoo DOT com> on Sunday June 06 2004, @03:26AM (#9349040)
      Or rather, their cells don't respond well enough to insulin.

      Type II diabetes can be treated with drugs that increase insulin release (sulfonylureas such as glyburide), drugs that reduce insulin resistance (the biguanide metformin and the new thiazolidinediones* such as rosiglitazone), and drugs that slow the breakdown of carbohydrates (acarbose).

      The drugs that increase insulin release can be very effective at first, but tend to become less so. These are the ones associated with weight gain. They also can cause hypoglycemia which can be dangerous.

      Metformin is old, cheap (generic), effective, and safe(r). It actually can cause some weight loss, and its main disadvantage is that it often causes dose-related diarrhea.

      Rosiglitazone is new, expensive, and very effective, though it can sometimes affect the liver. It causes some weight gain, but this is due to increased plasma volume (fluid retention).

      Acarbose has fairly modest benefits, but can be effective in people who get high glucose levels after a meal, but have low fasting levels, since it smooths out the spike in blood sugar.

      In Type II diabetics, the beta cells usually work overtime to produce enough insulin to have an effect on the resistant tissues and eventually fail - advanced cases may require insulin injections. If this drug does stimulate beta-cell division, it might delay or prevent this eventual impairment.

      *OK, I admit, I had to check the spelling on that.

  • Cure DM Type 1 but not DM Type 2 (Score:3, Informative)

    by aswang (92825) <aswang.fatoprofugus@net> on Sunday June 06 2004, @11:35PM (#9354329) Homepage
    Ironically, because the root cause of Type 2 is insulin resistance in target tissues (and relative, but not absolute, insulin deficiency), increasing the number of beta-cells won't necessarily cure this disease. In contrast, in Type 1, the cause seems to be the autoimmune destruction of beta-cells (resulting in absolute insulin deficiency.) If caught early, and if you can figure out how to modulate the immune system (which has already been tried, and which alone does not seem to modify the course of the disease), then perhaps exenatide could be used to repopulate the pancreas.

    Still, even in Type 2, another treatment would be useful. Incidentally, metformin doesn't cause weight gain either, but exenatide would be useful if metformin fails or is not tolerable by the patient.

    • If caught early, and if you can figure out how to modulate the immune system (which has already been tried, and which alone does not seem to modify the course of the disease), then perhaps exenatide could be used to repopulate the pancreas.

      Eh? I didn't see anything in the article about causing more beta cells to appear - it seemed to imply that the drug affected what the beta cells do:

      The origin of the novel drug, called exenatide, is itself novel. It is a synthetic version of the hormone exendin-4, foun

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