Researchers May Have Found Cause of Type 2 Diabetes 181
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.'"
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.
Said one researcher to the other... (Score:2, Insightful)
Hmm... (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
Re:Nice (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...
No No No... (Score:2, Insightful)
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
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.
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.
Re:Said one researcher to the other... (Score:2, Insightful)
There is a bit of insightfulness in your comment. (Score:1, Insightful)
You may think you were only being funny there... but the sad truth is that the producers of fast food, processed foods, and the way they overwhelm American society with their marketing tactics -- we are indeed "victims" of food (from the makers of such "foods") to at least some degree.
(How fitting also, is that the captcha I had to type to post this is "humorous")
Re:Nice (Score:2, Insightful)
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."
Shouldn't competition produce a cure? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Huh. (Score:2, Insightful)
Yikes!!!
You're happy for some diabetics, and unsympathetic to the rest?
Although I really, really, really hope you're just trolling, I suspect you honestly feel this way. This kind of opinion (bias, prejudice) seems to run pretty rampant these days, and it's one of the reasons that I rarely feel comfortable telling people I'm diabetic.
Although you make a good point (Score:1, Insightful)
The Real Cause of type 2 diabetes (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The Real Cause of type 2 diabetes (Score:2, Insightful)