Slashdot Log In
Researchers May Have Found Cause of Type 2 Diabetes
Journal written by ozmanjusri (601766) and posted by
Zonk
on Fri Oct 05, 2007 08:23 AM
from the good-start dept.
from the good-start dept.
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.'"
Related Stories
[+]
New Type2 Diabetes Treatment May Provide A Cure 45 comments
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?
[+]
NIH Confirms Protocol To Reverse Type 1 Diabetes 116 comments
FiReaNGeL writes "In 2001, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital demonstrated the efficacy of a protocol to reverse type 1 diabetes in diabetic mice. New data from a study performed at the National Institutes of Health provides additional confirmation of the ability to reverse type 1 diabetes and on the role of spleen cells in islet regeneration. Spleen cells appear to contribute to islet recovery more in mice who are older and with more advanced diabetes compared with younger mice with less advanced diabetes, in which regeneration of remaining islets may be the dominant mechanism."
[+]
Near-Complete Cure For Diabetes In Two Years? 271 comments
resistant writes "Researchers at a Toronto hospital have stumbled upon a dramatic treatment for mouse diabetes, with large implications for the treatment of diabetes in humans. From the article: 'The islet inflammation cleared up and the diabetes was gone. Some have remained in that state for as long as four months, with just one injection... They also discovered that their treatments curbed the insulin resistance that is the hallmark of Type 2 diabetes, and that insulin resistance is a major factor in Type 1 diabetes, suggesting the two illnesses are quite similar.'"
Update: 12/17 03:46 GMT by KD : resistant adds that the Cell Journal article is posted as a PDF as well as in plain text.
Update: 12/17 03:46 GMT by KD : resistant adds that the Cell Journal article is posted as a PDF as well as in plain text.
[+]
Alzheimer's Could Be a Third Form of Diabetes 251 comments
Atzanteol writes "Insulin, it turns out, may be as important for the mind as it is for the body. Research in the last few years has raised the possibility that Alzheimer's memory loss could be due to a novel third form of diabetes. Scientists at Northwestern University have discovered why brain insulin signaling — crucial for memory formation — would stop working in Alzheimer's disease."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Nice (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, but would they actually do that? There's a hell of a lot more money to be made by treating the symptoms, rather than curing the disease.
Re:Nice (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, it would be a new drug that could be patented, as opposed to insulin, which is no longer patented (if it ever was).
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
What about the enzyme mentioned in this article?
Quoting:
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe I'm just cynical that the medication to keep me aloft costs 2k a month so the prospect of a cure for my illness won't come till after that gravy train derails...
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Shouldn't competition produce a cure? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Step 1 : Remove tinfoil hat. (Score:5, Insightful)
Besides, giving a choice between paying for insulin, needles, blood test kits, or just a pill I know which I would take. I'd also be thankful someone is making it then going all tinfoil over their supposed real goals of keeping me sick - sick people die and don't buy more drugs - get over that
Parent
Re:Step 1 : Remove tinfoil hat. (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Isn't type 2 diabetes [wikipedia.org] basically dietary related (adult onset) and controled by monitoring blood sugar while type 1 [wikipedia.org] is the permanent loss of pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin, which I guess is what your mom has? If so then this research wouldn't help people like your mom since they have no insulin in the first place.
This is the current received wisdom. The article mentions research leading another way. Basically it says you need fat + a certain enzyme to develop Diabetes Type 2. This may or not be true, but it's certainly worth investigating.
From the FA
In their study, the researchers used genetically modified mice to observe the link between an oversupply of fat and type 2 diabetes.
They found mice without the enzyme did not develop diabetes, despite gaining weight on a high-fat diet.
That would at least explain why some people can be as fat as they like without ever developing Diabetes 2 and why Diabetes 2 seems to run in families.
Re:Nice (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure they would.
The pharmaco would patent the cure and price it at about 50-70% the average cost of lifelong diabetes care today so the insurance companies would more likely pay for it.
With obesity rates climbing like they are today, there will be no lack of profit.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
In the pharmaceutical industry, margins on generic drugs tend to be razor-thin simply due to the laws of economics. Insulin is insulin -- assuming that there's no industry collusion, if one vendor lowers their price, the entire market will flock to that vendor, because his product is identical.
This results in the price bottoming out somewhere just above the ma
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
My husband used to take your basic 70/30 mix (generic). In order to improve his sugar control, his doctor eventually switched him
Doctors != Evil (Score:5, Insightful)
One of my professors is a radiologist. One day at a banquet, he was seated next to a woman who was DEAD certain that there was a very simple cure to cancer that had already been discovered and that people like him were keeping it hidden so that they could make boatloads of money. After holding his tongue for half an hour, he replied "My mother died of Cancer."
Parent
Said one researcher to the other... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Said one researcher to the other... (Score:5, Informative)
The Garvan Institute is a non-profit organisation. They do patent discoveries, but any income earned is used to fund other research projects.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
"We need 5L of patent applications, stat! Can you imagine the dough we'll make when we lock up this discovery so that no one else can cure diabetes but us?"
The choices are:
Hmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, the costs are self inflicted (Score:2)
The "lawsuit taxes" are an direct result of the constant development of treatments instead of cures. When you cure a disease,
Huh. (Score:3, Interesting)
On the one hand, I always like to see things cured. On the other hand, my fear of type II diabetes is one of those things that gets my ass out of bed in the morning, makes me walk to lunch, makes me have an apple instead of a twinky.
It like if they came up with a wonder pill that fixed all the bad cardiovascular problems you get from eating all the wrong stuff, a diet pill that keeps you from gaining any weight, and a cure for type II diabetes...I'm just not sure that would really be good for anyone. You should ahve to have some consequences.
I understand that there are those who get Type II through no fault of their own, and this makes me happy for them...But they're the minority, and I don't have as much sympathy for the rest.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't disagree with making a profit, but they're doing it on the backs of people with a -so far- incurable disease and because most can't afford strips long term, skip or reuse strips which can lead
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Eh. (Score:2)
When I was young, the Hepatitis-B vaccine was optional...you got it before you went to college, if you felt like you needed it. Now they're trying to run the whole course of hep B AND A on kids before they're 18 months old. The chicken pox vaccine, which DOESN'T provide a lifetime immunity is required for daycares and preschools...Having had chicken pox when I was 15, rather t
prevention may be better ... ? (Score:2)
This is a serious health issue. When you consider that some forms of diabetes and obesity can be classed this way, it is clear to see that several billion people could die of malnutrition this century unless we begin some serious educational effort. Some scientific breakthroughs may save the climate, but your health is yours.
The cause is... (Score:4, Interesting)
But that isn't profitable to companies....
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Slashdot Ignorance (Score:2)
The quality of the scientific articles and comments on slashdot are absolutely atrocious lately.
First of all, the article is factually incorrect on the basics of diabetes. Type 2 (NON insulin-dependent) diabetics do produce adequate levels of insulin! The problem is that adipose (fat) and muscle tissue, for unknown reasons, do NOT increase glucose transport in response, leaving an excess of the glucose in the blood. This effect is called "insulin resistance," because these cells are resistant to the eff
Re: (Score:2)
Does that mean every single person with T2D is fat/lazy of course not, just the high percentage of them. But at least science (an
Re: (Score:2)
people eat like shit
After reading the ingredients on a frozen pizza box, I would have to agree. The biggest thing I noticed was that the meat only contained 11% meat... The salt was an insanely high percentage (40% or so?) of the FDA recommended daily allowance. There were several brands of pepperoni pizza that stated that the pepperoni was partially made from chicken.
And does anyone else consider Domino's Oreo Dessert Pizza to be an abomination against humanity? (Funny commercials though.)
Needl
Re: (Score:2)
Re:The cause is... (Score:5, Informative)
Almost all cases of T2D are curable by a lifestyle change.
Wrong.
It's controllable by a lifestyle change.
Not curable.
Parent
No No No... (Score:2, Insightful)
Even Better! (Score:2)
What are they trying to do now that they found the cause? Call me insensitive, but if they do find a medicinal cure it would only serve to enable some people to keep living unhealthy lifestyles. I think now that they h
not a "single cause" disease (Score:2)
What causes the PKCepsilon overproduction?!? (Score:3, Interesting)
For instance, I know one person who suffered from "hypothyroidism" for a long time and had to take T4 supplements. It turned out that her real problem was an iodine deficiency, that itself was likely caused by being on the birth control pill. Taking high doses of an iodine supplement cleared up the problem very quickly, and her thyroid began functioning properly again.
I know another patient who was inexplicably ill for many years. After an IgG panel blood test, it was determined that she had a food alergy to casein, the principal protein in milk and other dairy derivatives. This isn't the sort of IgE alergy that causes itching or anaphalaxis, but the IgG kind that takes days to set in, and the symptoms are less severe and can be flu-like. Part of the reason she never considered cutting out dairy was that she is not, in fact, lactose intolerant, so lactase ensyme didn't help. Eliminating dairy entirely solved her problem.
Just like the preceding case, I have an IgG reaction to soy protein. Imagine trying to avoid soy in the U.S. Soybean oil is the default "vegetable oil," soya lecithin is used as an emusifier in lots of foods, and soy protein isolate (not considered to be a food by the FDA) is added to lots of things that want to report having high protein content. Oh, and don't forget the estrogen analogues found in soy. Anyhow, challenging as it was, eliminating soy products resulted in a huge improvement to my energy level. (I suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome, and my nutritionist believes that it was caused by the soy alergy compromising my immune system.)
I know lots of people who have suffered from prolonged illness that was completely blown off by MDs that was then remedied very quickly by a nutritionist. And it frustrates me to no end how ignorant MDs are about nutritional effects and that they never refer people to nutritionists!
Ok, so what's my point? That in a lot of cases, I would not be surprised of there was some kind of food that people are sensitive to or which is eaten to excess that has compromised part of their metabolism. Taking insulin shots was a bandaid for diabetics. Taking something to inhibit PKCepsilon production is a BETTER bandaid, but it's still a bandaid. Someone's got to figure out the root cause.
Oh, did you know that a significant number of autism cases, when caught early enough, show remarkable improvement when wheat and dairy are removed from their diets? Many neurologists will tell you otherwise, but that's because they just don't study nutrition in school. The nutritionists know otherwise.
Oh, and BTW, I'm not against MDs. I just know their limitations. Got a broken bone, lyme disease, or a structural organ failure? Better go to an MD. But many of the little things that affect people's health are not in the "take this pill" or "let me operate" categories but rather in the "don't eat this" and "eat this instead" categories. The effect of environment and intake has a HUGE impact on the human body!
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Diabetes is on its way to becoming a poor man's disease. A cheap medicine against di
Re:Researchers just don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
This research is incredibly interesting since it may reverse the burn-out syndrome and alleviate the need for poorly managed type II diabetics to inject insulin. It will not, however, reverse the insulin resistance present in insulin-sensitive cells within the body.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
The article got the types of diabetes wrong. Type 2 diabetes means the body can't use the insulin it has, not that it doesn't produce enough. For those who have Type 2 diabetes a long time, they may eventually need to inject insulin, and this discovery could prevent that from becoming necessray.
[Summarized by a Type 2]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Interestingly, the journal Cell Metabolism http://www.cellmetabolism.org/ [cellmetabolism.org] which published the Australian paper http://www.cellmetabolism.org/content/article/abstract?uid=PIIS155 [cellmetabolism.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Notice you said ALMOST.
BTW almost exclusively is an oxymoron.
It is exclusive or it isn't
Type 2 diabetes is a genetic predisposition. There is a woman at my office that eats like a pig and just never gains weight. She is by all deffion gluttonous but will never get type 2 diabetes. That is a gentleman in my office that weighs almost 400 lbs and doesn't have type II. I do have type II and yes I do have to work at keeping my weight
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Did you think that you have the link backwards?
Yes people that get type 2 do often have trouble with weight. Ever think that the genetic predisposition might just cause that problem with it also contributes to that tendency to be over weight? BTW it isn't just being over weight. It is a specific body type that get is. People that tend to put on weight all over don't seem to get type 2. People that put weight on arou
Re:Researchers just don't get it (Score:4, Informative)
This is because after years of consistent overeating, your body begins to believe that elevated levels of blood sugar is "normal" and there is no need to produce more insulin.
This isn't true.
There are 2 components to type 2 diabetes
1) Insulin Resistance - Body isn't able to use the insulin produced efficiently.
2) Insulin Production - Body isn't able to produce enough insulin.
Here is the typical progression of type 2 diabetes.
For a normal person, when he eats carbohydrates, his blood sugar goes up. In response,
the pancreas produces insulin. The insulin pushes the blood sugar into the cells & the blood
sugar goes down.
When a person has insulin resistance, his pancreas produces insulin, but this insulin isn't
used efficiently. The insulin isn't able to push all the sugar into the cells. Hence the blood
sugar level doesn't go down immediatelly. Hence all the body parts are soaked in sugar which
is harmful to the organs. The pancreas is also an organ. The pancreas is soaked in sugar. This
causes insulin producing cells in the pancreas to die. This is a cyclic process i.e. because some
insulin producing cells die, the pancreases produces less insulin - this in turn causes blood
sugar to rise even more, which in turn causes more damage to the pancreas. This process keeps
continuing & finally when the pancreas has lost more than 50% of it's insulin producing cells,
blood sugar starts going out of control & he gets diabetes.
Typically, people who get type 2 diabetes are people who have the gene for
Insulin Resistance.
There are many people how much ever they eat, they don't get diabetes, or they
get it at a very advance age. Excess weight increases Insulin Resistance, but is
not the the cause of it.
A person with IR can delay or avoid diabetes for a long time by eating less, but
eating alone isn't the cause of type 2 diabetes.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Researchers just don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
When I was first diagnosed, I had let myself get out of shape, and weighed about 225. I had to use insulin for about six months until I built enough muscle and lost enough fat to go to just oral meds, and for the first year after that, I had to take several.
I was in the army for 13 years when I was younger, and among other posts held the position of physical fitness instructor. I routinely scored on the extended scale in the APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) every 6 Months for 8 to 10 years. (Basically, a Soldier had to score above 150 to finish basic training, extended scale starts with scoring over 100 in all three events - if you fall short in one, the high scores in the other two don't count). Getting back in shape with Diabetes was harder for me than getting to the top 2% of the Army. (And I had rank by then, so it wasn't drill sergeants pushing me, either).
I was never an Airborne Ranger, but I know a type 2 Diabetic who was, and he says getting back in shape felt about like Hell Week in ranger training (but lasted several months in his case).
There are several studies that show type 2 diabetes actually resets the satiation levels of the brain so that people with it get hungrier and have longer before they register fullness when their blood sugar levels are off (The disease thus impairs your judgment of one of means to fight it). There are others that show how a normal person will have extreme soreness the first few exercise sessions but if they push through it will stop feeling nearly that sore and how the average Type 2 Diabetic can expect that to continue for months or even more.
(It was about 6 months in my case - six months of near constant fatigue and extreme muscle soreness - six months when I did 8 reps with a weight, then 2 days later did the same 8 reps, then 2 days later did the same 8 reps, only to gain a rep every 2-3 weeks, before the process started getting up to normal sorts of gains - six months of worrying I would injure a foot with all the running and they would do what frequently happens to diabetics - amputation!).
Comments like yours are every bit as untrue and abusive as telling a rape victim they deserved it because they were dressed wrong. You should be heartily ashamed. It's not the researchers who 'just don't get it' here, it's people like you.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
The money certainly doesn't have to go to big Pharma. Endow you local university with some cash, especially if they have a top-notch biological/medical research facility. Give your money to organizations that promote healthier living. The pharmaceutical industry makes its own money -- private-sector research is dependent on government funding and private grants.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah. Strike the Jabba thing too and I'd be cramming french fries and double bacon quarter pounders down my throat every chance I got. They're fucking delicious. I used to eat them damn near every meal from 17 to 25 without gaining a pound, then my metabolism changed on me. Now, I have to eat 300 kcal a meal and exercise every day. I haven't had a quarter pounder in probably a year, but if there were no consequences I'd go back in a second.